SYDNEY: Australian Bauxite Limited’s subsidiary ALCORE Limited has executed a Memorandum of Understanding agreement (MoU) with the Japanese global trading company Sojitz Corporation (Sojitz), which owns alumina assets in Australia and other mineral resources worldwide.
The MoU provides a framework under which Alcore and Sojitz will explore a potential business relationship with respect to the business of Aluminium Fluoride (AIF₃).
Sojitz Group consists of approximately 400 subsidiaries and affiliateslocated in Japan and throughout the world, developing wide-ranging general trading company operations in a multitude of countries and regions.
Welcoming Sojitzto this project, Mark Cooksey, Alcore’s CEO, commented: “Sojitz has been assisting Alcore for 3 years and is one of several aluminium industry corporations that are vitally interested in the Alcore processes and business plans. We welcome this third-party endorsement and we expect there will be further endorsements in the coming months as we start to standardise our product specifications and processing strategies. Sojitz can provide an immediate international capability and could assist in the supply chain for Alcore production of AlF3 which is a strategically important mineral product for aluminium smelting and battery production.”
Alcore is planning the first domestic production of AlF3to supply Australasian aluminium smelters and to export. Currently Australasian imports from China exceed 30,000 tonnes per year worth more than A$60 million. Alcore plans to produce 10,000 tonnes per year growing to 50,000 tonnes.
Alcore is an 89%-owned subsidiary of Australian Bauxite Limited (“ABx”) that has the global exclusive rights to the aluminium-related portion of CORE Technology (Patent Application). Alcore has committed to the best strategy for the first commercial plant called “Refine & Recycle” whereby by-products from aluminium smelters will be converted into AlF3which can be sold back to the smelters as an essential electrolyte for smelting.
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