Altech Chemicals reports increased resource at Kerrigan kaolin deposit
Altech Chemicals managing director Iggy Tan says the company would look to divest Kerrigan if it received an “attractive offer”, with the Meckering deposit providing sufficient feedstock for its Johor HPA plant.
Recent drilling at Altech Chemicals’ (ASX: ATC) Kerrigan kaolin tenement in Western Australia has yielded a fresh inferred resource of 125 million tonnes at an ISO brightness of 85.2%.
The figures are based on a 2020 program of follow-up drilling, which comprised 27 aircore holes to verify earlier exploration and obtain samples for further testing and analysis.
They represent a 47% increase on a 2011 estimate of 85Mt at 85.1%.
The increase has been attributed to additional drilling data which has improved confidence in the previous results and confirmed the overall global resource; modification of some barren or low grade areas; and a revised geological interpretation indicating additional continuity of mineralisation.
Kerrigan location
Kerrigan is located 20 kilometres south of the central wheatbelt town of Hyden and sits within an exploration licence covering approximately 480 square kilometres.
It is wholly-owned by Altech and being developed as a separate standalone kaolin project to the flagship Meckering deposit, which will produce feedstock for the company’s high purity alumina processing plant in Malaysia.
Altech remains focused on financing arrangements for the plant and said it would eventually divest Kerrigan given the right opportunity.
Green bond offering
Earlier this month, Altech announced it was finalising a $196 million green bond offering to fund construction of the high purity alumina plant.
An initial “reach out” phase to potential subscribers had been finalised with more than 80 groups registering an interest.
Approximately $136 million of the offering will be used as secondary debt for the build, with the balance servicing bond interest during the construction phase.
The bonds will be managed by UK-based green bond issuance platform Sustainable Capital Plc and will be subordinate to the senior project finance of $259 million committed by Germany’s government-owned KfW IPEX-Bank.
Leading supplier
Altech plans to become one of the world’s leading suppliers of 99.99% (4N) high purity alumina through the construction and operation of the 4,500 tonnes per annum plant at Johor.
Feedstock will be sourced from the near surface kaolin deposit at Meckering before being shipped to Malaysia.