On 27/10/2023 I commented on exporting what I call near-ore as...

On  27/10/2023 I commented on exporting what I call near-ore as follows, "The blend used in sanitaryware typically includes 30% ball clay to provide plasticity and workability, 20% coarse kaolin, 30% feldspar and 20% quartz/silica. Coarse kaolin and silica sand effect hasty drainage. This suggests to me that WAK could export what I call near-ore to cover 40% of the total blend for sanitaryware. This matter of WAK exporting a near-ore is under discussion, and the idea is to export it in bulk via the Port of Bunbury, which may make obtaining road-transport permits easier to get. We shall hear more about this if negotiations are successful."

I mentioned  sanitaryware as a logical subsector that suited importing near-ore, but that is only one product in a category called pressure-cast ceramics forming, which includes ceramic tiles. I cannot recall Management stating that fact, but a few days ago I found what follows on a JETRO (Japanese External trade Organisation) site (https://e-venue.jetro.go.jp/bizportal/s/businesscase/a035h00000BYiM6AAL/pi00004900?language=en_US ), but I do not know when the information was authored.

• K99C - A high purity, high brightness kaolin that is well suited to the ceramic industry
• K99P - A high brightness kaolin this is a precursor for paper coating applications.
• K99F - A very stable kaolin with precise controls on composition that is a excellent for the fiberglass industry.
• Ceramic Grade Ore - a run of mine matrix ore that is ideally suited to ceramic tile manufacturing as the ore contains both kaolin at 45% and silica at 55%.

It is unfortunate, IMO, that WAK's off-take agreement with Stanco was focussed on K99F, which as things transpired did not suit the classifiers that were installed at Wickepin. I suspect there is a volume related problem that did not manifest itself when K99F was made using the Pilot Plant at Kwinana.

The new air classifier equipment would make it possible to achieve the desired particle-size distribution of K99F that Stanco wants. The real issue is the cost of the end K99F product, because the throughput of an air classifier declines as one reduces the cut point below 5 microns. After much Internet surfing, I recently found the table below (from https://www.taiwantrade.com/products/detail). As you can see, it does not reflect a particle-size difference between K99C and K99F, but it should, because K99F is stated to be WAK's finest particle-size product.

	Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4
0	{colgroup}
1	{col=105x@}{/col}{col=52x@}{/col}{col=49x@}{/col}{col=49x@}{/col}
2	{/colgroup}
3		K99C	K99P	K99F
4	+45μm residue	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
5	-20μm passing	98%	99%	98%
6	-10μm passing	95%	-	95%
7	-5μm passing	82%	-	82%
8	-2μm passing	57%	66%	57%
9	-1μm passing	36%	-	36%
10	-0.5μm passing	16.00%	-	16.00%