I do not recall that WAK has ever mentioned an interest in...

I do not recall that WAK has ever mentioned an interest in metakaolin until now.

Australia uses about 1 million tonnes a year, so I see metakaolin more as a domestic market, and the more local the better – that is, look at WA cement producers first. I am aware of two cement producers in WA – Cockburn Cement (subsidiary of AdBri) is the larger, and BGC (a WAK customer is the other). Management is probably in contact with both. Such contact can create a low-risk entry into metakaolin, because if one or both of those cement producers is interested, the commercial viability can be easily established.

The European standard for cement has five major grades, with Grade Four and Grade Five being at the high end, and containing pozzolana (e.g., metakaolin) – see h0\ttps://www.vvmcem.be/en/products/cement-types. There are subgrades, and at Grades Four and Five, whiteness is a factor, because of white being desirable per se, or if the desired concrete is to be tinted. WAK is probably aiming at a premium product that sells for about $1,000 a tonne.

Australia uses circa a million tonnes of metakaolin a year, so even 1% of that at that price is worth 1,000,000*1%*$1000 = $10 million. If WAK cannot justify producing metakaolin for WA, it perhaps does not have a case to justify getting into the play, IMO. Management is likely to say very little about this until metakaolin looks like a no-brainer.

If you look at https://apoza.asn.au/membership/current-members, you will see Adbri and BGC listed as members of Australian Pozzolana Association, as well as the University of Western Australia and Tianqi Lithium. Tianqi is interested in commercialising lithium aluminosilicate residue, a byproduct of lithium extraction from spodumene, and I imagine it is working with the University of Western Australia to achieve that end.​