ChemX Materials: Two under the radar lucrative lithium battery opportunities
ChemX Materials CEO Peter Lee on 3AW, 2GB & 6PR Bulls N' Bears Report
Listen to ASX-listed ChemX Materials CEO Peter Lee talk to Matt Birney on the Bulls N’ Bears Report about ChemX’ unique high purity alumina processing tech and its big plans to enter the high purity manganese space – both relatively unknown but lucrative and vital parts of the lithium battery jigsaw.
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ChemX is looking to develop a high-purity manganese product for lithium batteries from its own manganese deposit in South Australia and the company is also working on a proprietary processing method of creating high-purity alumina or “HPA”– also for lithium batteries. In recent testing, ChemX’s process managed to produce a 99.99 per cent pure HPA product known as 4N’s – 4N’s are pretty close to the pinnacle of HPA products and attract a more lucrative price tag.
RADIO INTERVIEW - TRANSCRIPT
Matt Birney - Welcome to Bulls N' Bears brought to you today by ChemX
Matt Birney - ASX code: CMX
Matt Birney - I'm Matt Birney and I'm joined now by the CEO of ChemX, Peter Lee
Matt Birney - Hi Pete
Peter Lee - Hi Matt, thanks for having me
Matt Birney - Okay so ChemX is looking to develop a high purity manganese product for lithium batteries from its own manganese deposit in South Australia and the company is also working on a proprietary processing method of creating high purity alumina or “HPA”– also for lithium batteries.
Matt Birney - In recent testing, ChemX’s process managed to produce a 99.99 per cent pure HPA product known as 4N’s – 4N’s are pretty close to the pinnacle of HPA products and attract a more lucrative price tag.
Matt Birney - Okay Pete, we'll get into that 4N achievement in a minute but firstly tell me about this process you're developing to produce high purity alumina. What makes it different to what's out there?
Peter Lee - Yeah the flowsheet is really unique and essentially we don't use kaolin-based clays to achieve our HPA product, essentially we're using a luminous chemical that's actually widely available.
Matt Birney - Okay so tell me, what are the various uses for high purity alumina generally?
Peter Lee - Yeah so high purity alumina, being very inert, it's typically used in lithium batteries for EVs. It's also synthetic sapphire things like iPhone camera lenses, lasers, military applications, so it's really out there, it's really quite common.
Matt Birney - And LED lights too I believe, is that right?
Peter Lee - Yeah exactly wide uses there as well so it's almost a household name without realizing it.
Matt Birney - Okay so ChemX has just produced a 99.99 per cent pure HPA product using your own developed process, why does it need to be that pure? Does it fetch more money and if so how much more?
Peter Lee - Yeah exactly so a five nines product would typically fetch around 35,000 US a tonne, four nines typically around 20,000 US a tonne and really, you know, for a fairly inexpensive feedstock, that's quite a margin and so it's quite exciting.
Matt Birney - Does it get you into a different market? Achieving the 99.99?
Peter Lee - Yeah absolutely, a typical three nines, four nines you know gets you into that lithium battery market space and really that's quite lucrative and so that's really the primary target.
Matt Birney - Is your HPA process patented? Have you got any protection on it?
Peter Lee - Yeah absolutely so we've been progressing that patent application and we've just achieved a certain sign-off that means we're now entering a different stage and so we perceive by the end of the year we should have that patent fully locked down.
Peter Lee - At this point we've achieved recognition that we've passed that critical stage.
Matt Birney - Okay now I know you're also looking to produce a high purity manganese product, also suitable for lithium batteries and you've got your own manganese deposit in South Australia.
Matt Birney - What's the initial maiden resource here? I know you've just announced it, right?
Peter Lee - Yeah, that's right we recently announced we've got 13 million tonne at 5.7 per cent manganese and we've got a follow-up drill program underway. I'm literally in Kimba at the moment.
Matt Birney - Okay well, Peter Lee from ChemX Materials
Matt Birney - Thanks for joining me on Bulls N' Bears and remember we're only here to give you information, not advice, which you should of course seek independently.
Matt Birney - I'm Matt Birney and this is Bulls N' Bears
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