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The patent application expands on a previously lodged patent application titled A Method for the Preparation of Alumina it filed in 2014.
The existing patent application describes Altech’s method of preparing alumina from aluminous material including kaolin.
This latest patent application incorporates various refinements to its HPA processing route developed during project due diligence.
The patent application covers:
- Treating aluminous material to reduce particle size and increase the alumina content;
- Calcining the aluminous material;
- Leaching the aluminous material with hydrochloric acid;
- Solid-liquid separation to provide a pregnant liquor;
- Crystallising aluminium chloride hexahydrate by adding hydrogen chloride gas;
- Precipitating and separation of aluminium chloride hexahydrate;
- Dissolving the aluminium chloride hexahydrate in water and repeating the crystallisation process;
- Roasting and calcining aluminium chloride hexahydrate to provide alumina; and
- Finishing alumina in either a high density bead or fine alumina powder.
Altech has a kaolin deposit at Meckering in Western Australia. It plans to send the kaolin from that deposit to the 4500 tonne per annum HPA plant it is developing at the Tanjung Langsat Industrial Complex in Johor, Malaysia.
As part of project due diligence initiated by KfW IPEX-Bank a global freedom to operate search was conducted and it found Altech was free to produce, market, sell or otherwise distribute HPA manufactured by its process.
