PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Australian Strategic Materials (ASM) has produced 9 kg of key permanent magnet alloy neodymium praeseodymiium (NdPr) at its commercial plant in South Korea.
The company told shareholders on Tuesday that following this success, the company, through Zircon Tech, was now progressing an agreement with the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) to produce a sample of 600 kg of permanent magnets for Korean industry over the coming months.
ASM MD David Woodall said that this was an important step in the company’s commercialising strategy.
“Korea imports rare earth magnets and has a strong desire to ensure security of supply of these critical materials to their domestic manufacturing sector. This sample production run is set to provide a framework for increased domestic production to help support their local industry.
“To progress this, ASM will produce the 200 kg of NdPr required for the production of the 600 kg sample permanent magnets.”