Mining

Parkway Minerals enters global co-operation agreement to advance its mineral processing technology platform

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By Imelda Cotton - 
Parkway Minerals ASX PWN aMES technology

The aMES processing technology enables the recovery of certain minerals, reagents and water from generally complex aqueous solutions including desalination, industrial and mining waste streams.

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Exploration company Parkway Minerals (ASX: PWN) has entered into a global strategic co-operation agreement with a Worley Group subsidiary to help commercialise its activated minerals extraction system (aMES) process technology.

Signed for an initial three-year term, the agreement will enable the provision of engineering, procurement and construction support to Parkway’s projects and underpins its ongoing efforts to market the aMES platform.

It incorporates a revenue-sharing model which will see Parkway retain all preliminary evaluation and upfront licensing fees, with recurring fees, revenues and margins shared by both parties.

Parkway will also retain all intellectual property relating to the technology.

Parkway said it intends to put forward a number of advanced third party projects for consideration under the agreement.

Several of the projects have undergone substantial process evaluation including successful aMES-based piloting and are operated by globally-significant mining companies.

An initial opportunity is planned to be advanced shortly as the basis for joint capability development.

Process technology

aMES is a proprietary process technology which enables the treatment of concentrated brine solutions to recover a range of valuable minerals, reagents and fresh water complex aqueous solutions including desalination, industrial and mining waste streams.

It incorporates novel membrane technology based on proprietary intellectual property acquired over more than a decade of process development initiatives.

Parkway said ongoing collaboration with a number of brine project owners has highlighted applications where aMES could potentially deliver value by enhancing existing flowsheets in order to improve overall project performance.

The company said the appeal of its relatively “capital-light” business model was based on the expectation that it would be “well-placed to share in incremental value” created through the application of the technology on third party projects, without needing to acquire an equity interest.

Key priority

Since 2015, Parkway has held strategic relationships with key equipment suppliers as well as Victoria University in Melbourne, where it recently established an engineering and technical office.

Managing director Bahay Ozcakmak said alignment with an experienced global engineering company had been a key priority for building the next stage of the aMES platform.

“The agreement [we have signed] is an important step on our journey towards achieving our vision of transforming global brine processing methods, through innovative technology, in order to improve sustainability and create value,” he said.

Market optimism

Despite current market uncertainties associated with the COVID-19 economic slowdown, Mr Ozcakmak was optimistic about the commercialisation of aMES.

“Although each project opportunity will invariably have its own intricacies, the platform we are building will enable us to participate in more projects as a technology solution provider and build significant momentum,” he said.

“While we are experiencing some [current] delays particularly with key partners, vendors and collaborators, we expect our activities will proceed substantially uninterrupted as the majority of [our] tasks can be advanced with limited involvement from external parties.”