PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed FYI Resources and aluminium major Alcoa Australia on Friday announced that the two companies would undertake an extended high purity alumina (HPA) trial production run at FYI’s facility in Western Australia.
The production run would be the second joint pilot plant trial between FYI and Alcoa under an agreement inked in October this year to jointly develop FYI’s HPA project.
The joint development is expected to unlock significant project value by combining Alcoa's technical expertise and experience in the construction and operation of refining facilities with FYI's innovative HPA processing flowsheet, industry knowledge and customer contacts.
FYI on Friday said that the second production run is intended to have an extended operating time of two weeks, followed by a one-week operational assessment period, and then a second two weeks of operations.
The extended pilot plant trial will assist in the development of the HPA process flowsheet by demonstrating operating efficiencies and process refinements drawn from the continuous improvement programme from previous trials. The extended pilot run will also produce HPA that will be used for further detailed product assessment by prospective customers and offtake partners.