FYI Resources joint HPA trial results "positive endorsement" of refining process

“The results are clearly outstanding and a positive endorsement for our innovative HPA refining process,” says FYI MD.

The pilot plant in operation in week one of joint extended production.

FYI Resources Ltd (ASX:FYI)has seen further success in its joint venture high purity alumina (HPA) trial withAlcoa (NYSE:AA)of Australia, with the latest pilot plant trial samples meeting operational and quality expectations.

The HPA-producing hopeful recorded 99.9974% aluminium oxide purity among samples from the trial program, which wrapped up the second of four weeks on Tuesday.

Overall, the company says the trial outcomes continue to demonstrate the effectiveness of its HPA refining process, aligning with potential customer quality specifications.

Further, the results underpin progress on the broader HPA project development agreement between FYI andAlcoa (NYSE:AA).

“Positive endorsement” for process

Commenting on the joint pilot plant HPA analysis results, FYI managing director Roland Hill said: “The results are clearly outstanding and a positive endorsement for our innovative HPA refining process.

“The quality of the results also speaks to the excellent project development work undertaken to date.

“Importantly, the high consistent quality of the results provides an insight as to the future potential and direction of our HPA project development as our incremental improvements are incorporated into our flowsheet design.

“We see the independent HPA results as being significant as the achievement not only places our HPA at the forefront of HPA quality, but the results may also have a positive impact to the project economics (capex and opex improvements) as well as continuing to demonstrate the ability to deliver consistent and reliable high-quality HPA product.”

The results are in

FYI andAlcoa (NYSE:AA)kicked off the pilot plant trial collaboration in November.

From here, selected samples across all stages of the process were analysed by EAG Laboratories in New York using high-level Glow Discharge Mass Spectrometry (GDMS).

Ultimately, this evaluation provided independent, high accuracy confirmation of the HPA grades across the pilot plant samples.

All in all, the results indicate high-quality grades were consistently achieved across the series of samples, ranging in purity from 99.999% to 99.996% aluminium oxide, and further validate FYI’s HPA flowsheet design.

Next steps

FYI, in collaboration with Alcoa, will continue the schedule for the extended pilot plant trials.

Week two was completed yesterday, and samples from the operations will be sent for independent analysis following internal assessment.

Trials three and four will be scheduled for operations in January 2022 and will focus on product generation for customer assessment purposes.

Broader project

Considering the key milestones achieved under the joint development schedule, FYI and Alcoa are progressing the joint development plan set out in the signed term sheet agreement.

While the pilot plant operations are not a condition for the joint development term sheet, the positive results further enhance the process flowsheet and could also better the project economics.

Together, FYI and Alcoa hope to continuously improve and optimise the flowsheet by incorporating learnings from previous pilot plant trials and integrating them into the process design.