IMPACT MINERALS LTD (IPT) - High-Purity Alumina And The Tech Supply Chain

One obscure material is quietly doing heavy lifting across the modern economy: high purity alumina (HPA). From LED lighting to semiconductor manufacturing to the thermal management challenges inside fast-growing data centres, HPA shows up where heat and chemical stability can’t be left to chance. We sit down with Dr Mike Jones, Managing Director of Impact Minerals, to break down what HPA actually is, why it often becomes artificial sapphire, and why demand growth is catching investors’ attention.

We then move from the big picture to the execution plan at the Lake Hope HPA project in Western Australia. Mike explains the practical mining concept on a salt lake, the logistics of moving clay feedstock to Perth, and how the Alluminous processing technology changes the commercial timeline. With a pilot plant progressing from batch toward continuous operation, plus a specialised analytical lab to control impurities, the focus turns to throughput, product consistency, and what it takes to qualify HPA for battery and technology customers, including early test work with a US battery technology company.

There’s more optionality on the table too. We unpack a separate flowsheet that targets sulfate of potash (SOP) fertiliser and hydrochloric acid from lake clays around Salmon Gums, and why location matters for both agricultural demand and WA goldfields consumption. Finally, we hit the exploration leverage: high-grade gold and silver results at the Commonwealth VMS project with Kuniko’s drilling ramping up, plus Impact’s large Broken Hill ground position and a compelling magnetotelluric conductor target lined up for future drilling.

If you want clear, investor-focused context on Impact Minerals, Lake Hope, HPA processing, SOP fertiliser, Commonwealth drilling, and Broken Hill targeting, hit play, subscribe, share the episode with a mate, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Andrew Musgrave 0:04

Welcome back to another episode of ASX Briefs, where we bring you the latest insights from ASX listed companies. And today we welcome back Dr. Mike Jones, the Managing Director of Impact Minerals Limited. Impact Minerals is a multi-project Australian explorer with an exciting portfolio spanning high-grade gold-silver VMS systems in New South Wales, a world-first high-purity Illumina technology in Western Australia, and a growing ground position at one of Australia's most iconic mining addresses, Broken Hill. Mike, thanks for joining me again and welcome back to the ASX Briefs podcast.

Mike Jones 0:38

Yeah, great to be here again, Andrew.

What High-Purity Alumina Is

Andrew Musgrave 0:40

Now, Mike, it's been a while since we last spoke. It's been a very busy quarter across a number of fronts. So for investors new to the impact story, can you give us a brief overview of the company?

Mike Jones 0:49

Certainly. Impact's focus is predominantly on the high purity alumina business. And for those who don't know what uh high purity alumina is, or HPA as we call it, it's a little known but niche mineral that's a crucial part of many emerging industries, modern technologies. For example, it's used extensively in LEDs. Every light-emitting diode has a small piece of HPA behind it in the form of artificial sapphire. So alumina is aluminium oxide, and in its purest form we see it as sapphire. And it's a very hard mineral, it's very thermally inert and chemically inert, giving it a wide range of uses. The two big industries at the moment are the semiconductor industry, where fine particles of HPA are used to polish the particles that go into a semiconductor, such as silicon carbide and gallium arsenide. And it's also used as a filler around the semiconductors to dissipate heat. And of course, with data centers growing at an exponential rate, you can imagine the amount of heat that those senders produce. And so the HPA helps dissipate that. In a similar vein, it's also used in uh lithium-iron batteries to basically prevent them from overheating. So it's, as I mentioned, thermally inert and chemically inert. So it allows the chemistry to pass through between the anode and the cathode in those batteries, but not the heat. And if something goes wrong with the battery manufacturing, we get an explosion, runaway thermal reaction, and the batteries catch on fire. So look, those technologies we believe the market's growing at about 20% per year, and it's a great place to be.

Andrew Musgrave 2:19

Now looking

Lake Hope Project Progress

Speaker 2:20

at Lake Hope, what progress has there been made on the Lake Hope HPA project?

Mike Jones 2:25

So last year we completed a pre-feasibility study on Lake Hope. That's a project on a salt lake about 500 kilometres east of Perth in Western Australia. And uh through uh a contact that I have, uh Roland, he discovered that in the top two metres of that lake is something now that we've been able to calculate in the order of about 15 billion US dollars worth of HPA. And it's a very simple mining operation. Uh basically going to dig up the clay, it doesn't need any on-site beneficiation, and we're going to truck that to Perth. So very low environmental footprint uh in order to be able to mine that material. Once it's in Perth, uh we will then uh process it. And a couple of things have happened uh on the processing front. We have our own process, but last year we purchased a 50% share of an HPA processing technology through a company that's called Alumino's. And we're the single largest shareholder at uh 50%. And Illuminus has been making great progress towards production of HPA, and as of the first part of this quarter, uh we shipped off material to a battery technology company in the US for initial test work and feedback on our HPA. So should point out that we're one of the very few companies anywhere in the West that can now produce HPA at uh will, not necessarily at scale yet, but that will come as we move forward. So what we're doing at the moment, we're moving through basically early stage feasibility studies to bring everything together to get into production over the next couple of years.

Illuminus Pilot Plant And Scale-Up

Andrew Musgrave 3:52

Okay, and

Speaker 3:53

just touching on that joint venture with Illuminus, how important is that step in the commercialization pathway and what happens next?

Mike Jones 4:00

So when we came across the technology, uh we were quite surprised to see that the feedstock, which is a chemical feedstock rather than Lake Hope, which is a natural feedstock, is actually the same mineral that we're digging up out of our lake. And so by fates of nature, uh we've ended up having a natural fit between Lake Hope and the luminous process, and we're looking at trying to integrate those two at the moment. But the thing about the luminous acquisition is that it came with a pilot plant that was about 80% complete, and we've now got that working in batch mode and moving towards continuous mode, which will allow us to produce uh you know X number of tons per year of HPA. And it also came with an analytical laboratory specifically for high purity minerals, and that's a very important part of the pilot plant process in order to be able to get instant feedback on how that plant is working. So we're moving towards full commissioning of that pilot plant, and we believe we're gonna have a very significant uh breakthrough in terms of the throughput capability of that plant and perhaps turn it from a pilot into a demonstration plant. That might not mean a lot to a lot of investors, but if I could explain uh the significance of that is is beyond the pale. Uh, it's absolutely an amazing breakthrough, and we look forward to putting out more information on that as we go forward. But the final line is this is that it's going to accelerate and has accelerated our entry into the marketplace for HPA by several years. And so so far it's been a fantastic acquisition.

Salmon Gums Potash And Acid Opportunity

Andrew Musgrave 5:25

And during

Speaker 5:26

the quarter, you identified a compelling standalone opportunity to produce sulfate of potash and hydrochloric acid from Lake Clay's, products that are in strong demand domestically. Can you walk us through the salmon gums project and why this development is so interesting?

Mike Jones 5:41

So, as part of my work on the Lake Hope Salt Lake, we discovered another flow sheet, another way of taking these clays and producing potash and hydrochloric acid as the primary products. And just to be clear, we take the clay, we basically cook it up, it melts, and we drive off uh sulfate of potash, which is a high-grade fertilizer, and hydrochloric acid. And the Samagum's location is about 600 kilometres east of Perth, and it lies halfway between the port of Esperance, where we can import the raw materials that we need for the process, and it lies and the gold fields of Western Australia, which have a huge demand for hydrochloric acid. And it's also within the wheat belt of Western Australia, and so there's a natural market there for fertilizers. So the uh nature again has been in our favour, and we've identified a number of lakes there where we can produce potash. We believe we're going to have a very considerable resource there. Uh we've put out an expiration target already that's about one and a half million tons, give or take, of potash that we can produce. That's probably, you know, like a 10 to 20 year mine life at modest SOP production. But we believe that we can increase that very significantly, and we just completed a major fieldwork program to do that. So basically, Impact is now turning into an industrial minerals uh powerhouse. We're going to do HPA, we're going to do potash and hydrochloric acid, all out of the salt lakes of uh Western Australia. So it's been a fascinating journey so far and one that uh is going to continue.

Andrew Musgrave 7:07

Okay, now looking at the Commonwealth project, the first two assay results from CUNICO's made and drill program at Commonwealth have confirmed some very impressive high-grade numbers. So, what are these results telling you about the scale and the continuity of the system?

Mike Jones 7:20

So Impact has two legacy exploration assets, the Commonwealth Project, which we've just mentioned, and also Broken Hill. So Commonwealth, uh we have a joint venture with a company called Kanico Limited, ASX listed, codes KI. And they've completed a uh they're earning a 70% interest in the project. And Impact will be a 30% free carried partner to a decision to mine. So it's a very good deal for Impact, still exposed. We have had Commonwealth for some time and have always believed that we could be sitting on something very considerable. It is the only deposit, it's a VMS volcanogenic massive sulphide. It's the only deposit of its style in Australia that looks similar to a famous deposit in British Columbia called SK Creek. And SK Creek was one of the world's great mines and is actually being brought back on stream now by a mid-tier uh company. And um it's uh characterized by exceptionally high gold and silver uh gold and silver grades. So the big standout is Conico completed a six-hole diamond drill program in and around the resource that we had previously identified. And one hole in particular has made a significant breakthrough, and we announced that uh only uh yesterday on Tuesday, the 5th of May. And uh it's a spectacular intercept of a high grade gold and silver vein. It's only half a meter wide, but it's part of an 80-meter wide zone that was identified below a fault in a com in an area that we had no idea there was any mineralization, so it's a major step out. And that half a meter vein is carrying 27 grams of gold and 2% or 20,000 grams per ton silver. And uh we believe that this is actually the step out we've been looking for to see a material increase in the size of the uh the resource at the Commonwealth and Silica Hill uh uh prospects. So fantastic outcome. And Kuniko will be going back and doing a major drill program starting in mid to late June. So it's a very exciting time. We're free, as I say, free carriage, it's not costing us any money, and uh, I believe there's uh you know potential big re-rating of uh both our stocks on the back of that discovery.

Andrew Musgrave 9:21

Okay, and just touching on that joint venture, Kuniko has completed a $3.7 million placement and is advancing to a larger phase two drilling program, which you just mentioned. So for impact shareholders, how important is that and what are you expecting to see from this phase two drilling?

Pending Assays And Phase Two Drilling

Mike Jones 9:37

Well, we've always believed in the Commonwealth project. Obviously, with our increasing focus on HPA, we've been doing deals uh you know or dropping uh you know previous legacy assets that we had. As I mentioned, always been a great believer that we've got something that could be similar to SK Creek, and that contains 10 million ounces of gold and about 400 million ounces of silver. It's that it's that good a deposit. And uh certainly with the grades that we're seeing in these veins, they're matching those at SK Creek. The mineralogy is similar. And so, you know, we would uh be hopeful that we can uh, you know, if we've got something a quarter of that size, we'd be uh everyone would be more than uh and more than happy. So fingers crossed for that next round of drilling.

Andrew Musgrave 10:14

Now, assays are still pending for two of the six phase one holes. So, what's the timeline on those results and how will they shape the phase two program design?

Mike Jones 10:22

So those results should be available within the next uh couple of weeks, according to uh Kaniko. So the first six-hole program was basically designed to test extensions, modest extensions to the known mineralization. So the two remaining holes, and we've reported visual estimates of the mineralization already. It's more of a disseminated style. We won't get the same high grades uh in uh in concentrated form, but what they have done is opened up new areas between uh different parts of the deposit which have never been drilled before. And so again, uh we're seeing uh a massive increase in the new areas that we can go and look for resource extensions. So, all in all, it was a very successful uh drill program. All six holes came in with uh mineralization. Uh some two the first two holes, high grade massive sulfide, similar to what we'd found before. The two holes announced yesterday for Silica Hill with a spectacular discovery. And uh we've got uh the two holes to come, which is uh between Commonwealth and Commonwealth South. So uh it's been a great result so far.

Broken Hill Targets And Next Steps

Andrew Musgrave 11:18

Turning now

Speaker 11:19

to Broken Hill, you've now assembled approximately 1,800 square kilometers almost entirely surrounding one of the world's great mineral deposits. So, what are you seeing in the data that excites you?

Mike Jones 11:30

So there's Broken Hill was discovered in 1883 and has been mined virtually continuously since then. Uh but interestingly, there's only one been only other sort of one other deposit found uh called Pinnacles, and both of those uh now owned by uh BHM, Broken Hill Mines. And despite all of the exploration that's been done in the region, um there's been very little else found. There's a lot of smoke there and not uh not a lot of fire so far. But we've always been great believers in the region, and we were actually one of the first companies uh to be on the BHP Explore program, which is like a venture capital uh program. BHP have been running now for three years to help fund junior companies accelerate their projects. So we took an idea to them about uh looking for copper in Broken Hill. They like the idea, we were on the program, and we've done a lot of uh research based around that uh the model that we took. So we've always been very excited. We've identified a very significant magnetotelleuric anomaly, which is a conductive feature. It's actually they measure the Earth's uh far field electrical field uh using things like lightning strikes to get MT. I've no idea how it works, but uh we've certainly got a uh a conductor out of it. It looks very exciting, and uh we're looking to put a drill hole into that later this year. It is a large ground holding. We're talking to a few parties to see if we can do a joint venture similar to the Kaniko one, but uh there is some uh merit for us in uh putting a drill hole or two into some of our key targets, so we can look forward to that as well going forward.

Portfolio Priorities And 12-Month Outlook

Andrew Musgrave 12:56

And

Speaker 12:57

finally, Mike, Impact has multiple projects generating news flows simultaneously. Commonwealth assays, salmon gums, scoping study results, aluminous pilot plant progress, and broken hill drill targeting all on the horizon. So, how do you prioritize this across the portfolio? And what should investors be focused on over the next six to twelve months?

Mike Jones 13:18

The key focus is always HPA. It's not a big drain on our finances because we're doing feasibility studies, which is mostly test work. You know, there's no big drill programs required, there's no big uh you know equipment to be uh purchased at this stage. And we're looking with the Luminus to develop a modular technology, which will be uh capital light. So that's the main focus. We've obviously got this emerging uh potash hydrochloric acid uh discovery uh underway. Obviously, with fertilizer being in the news at the moment, with the closure of the Straits of Hormuz, we're seeing emerging fertilizer shortages and also governments moving towards self-sustaining and self-capability in critical minerals, which will include fertilizer. So we believe that that project has got merit. It's a larger scale in terms of CapEx compared to the HPA, and so we'll probably look for a partner for that going forward. And then, as we mentioned, the legacy exploration assets, we've got a joint venture on Commonwealth. We may have one on part of Broken Hill, do a bit of work ourselves because that's an asymmetric bet. For a small amount of money, we may get a big discovery at Broken Hill, and that would be a dream come true.

Andrew Musgrave 14:22

Well, Mike, it's been great to catch up again. So thanks for your time, and we look forward to the next update from Impact Minerals in the upcoming months.

Mike Jones 14:29

That's great, Angie. Thanks very much.

Andrew Musgrave 14:31

That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe, and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.