There are two processes I've seen that might have been competition for APG one being some micro particle process out of Canada I think and the other being the CSIRO group. Iluka put a lot into the Lurgi Newgen SR process being pushed hard by their chief scientist in 2003 but have gone very quiet and as far as I know they mothballed the concept (some very red faces I heard). They are re-burying the illmenite from Douglas as they can't process it with their current Becher technology.
The CSIRO process is chasing the same route (and behind) as APG and have to be carefull of APGs patents. The last I heard they are mainly bench scale and don't have the dedicated pilot plant that Austpac has built. Certainly a long way behind as far as I know.
The microparticle process has not made any progress 's and I heard got burnt treading on roches territory.
Apart from the newgen process that isn't being used and the CSIRO labscale stuff there is only the slag process and the old Becher process that has problems with too many contaminates and makes a very messy sludge of iron oxide.
Cheers
Seik
APG Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
