Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- King River Resources (KRR) is progressing the pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the production of high-purity alumina (HPA) from its Speewah project in WA
- KRR has improved the refinement process with indications it could produce alpha-alumina – the highest-grade product
- A mining study and marketing and environmental reports have also been completed
- The company now needs to produce larger samples for independent testing to prove the product’s purity
- Once plant and infrastructure design and costings are finalised, KRR will expedite the release of the PFS as soon as possible
- King River Resources closed Wednesday’s session 10.4 per cent lower at 4.3 cents per share
King River Resources (KRR) is progressing the pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the production of high-purity alumina (HPA) from its Speewah project in WA.
While there are still several milestones to be achieved, the company has made firm progress since its last update in mid-May.
Refine-tuned
The production of premium-grade HPA is no mean feat. KRR first reported its achievement of 99.99 per cent-pure product in April, but needed to do further work to refine and streamline its processes.
The company has now ticked several boxes in fine-tuning production.
Aside from isolating contaminants in certain reagents and from some equipment, KRR has delivered stage two purification recovery of 81.5 per cent – surpassing the 80 per cent PFS target.
Even more importantly, refinements to the purification process indicate the company should be able to produce not just HPA, but alpha-alumina – the highest grade product.
This process refinement work, alongside a completed mining studies and marketing and environmental reports, show King River is progressing well towards the final PFS.
Next steps
King River must now prove its processes before it can finalise the PFS.
The company must repeat the 99.99 per cent HPA delivered in April, but in a larger sample to be submitted for verification analysis.
This must be verified by independent testers, while samples will also undergo X-ray diffraction analysis to confirm the HPA is 100 per cent alpha-alumina.
The company has also contracted Como Engineers to deliver the plant and infrastructure design and costings. These reports are nearing completion, and are just waiting on final model validation and review.
Pending the above steps, the company will release the Speewah PFS as soon as possible.
King River Resources closed Wednesday’s session 10.4 per cent lower at 4.3 cents per share.
