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applications, including batteries, hydro- play in China and
gen storage, water purification, carbon will look to convert
capture and medical applications. There those into binding
are all these new areas and no one sup- agreements this
plies this material in the world at the mo- year.
ment. I get people probably on a weekly China is eager to
basis from around the world asking for it,” overcome its deficit
Marsh said. of halloysite-kaolin
It is believed that pure halloysite can material with prod-
fetch up to $5,000/t compared with DSO uct from Poochera
material’s (50% sand) $115-140/t value and while Marsh is
and refined kaolin-halloysite hybrid’s keen to continue
$350-1,000/t price tag. with sales and other
Marsh said there were no other depos- budding opportuni-
its in the world hosting the type of hal- ties emanating from
loysite Poochera was endowed with. the country, he said
“There are currently about 8,000 re- Andromeda had op-
search papers in the world into high pu- tions at its disposal.
rity halloysite applications going on and “China can see the
there were 80 patents issued last year in benefits of halloysite There are no other deposits in the world hosting the type of
new applications. But halloysite material in new technologies, halloysite Poochera boasts
is little, naturally occurring nanotubes which they want to
and what we have is nanotubes with ex- capture, but we want
tremely high functionality. You can only to capture those opportunities in Australia approvals process and decision to mine
get that by manufacturing things like car- as well,” Marsh said. to follow.
bon nanotubes, which are hugely expen- “For the time being we are also focused “At the point of decision to mine, we will
sive synthetic products. We have natural in areas like Japan, Europe where we jump to a 75% interest and we will have
products that occur in the right dimen- have a lot of interest but haven’t pushed discussions with Minotaur about what we
sions naturally,” Marsh said. on with any opportunities yet, and possi- do going forward,” Marsh said.
“South Australia seems to have the bly India and the Middle East. The whole “An initial $9 million is not a lot to get
world’s biggest and only significant de- world wants this material, but China is going, especially when you consider we
posit of this material, so we are in a very the first cab off the rank because they have over $8 million worth of options that
strong position. There are people claim- have a huge supply shortage.” will be exercised by November this year.
ing to be finding it throughout the rest of Considering the timeline to production, “Financially we are in a strong posi-
Australia because they have seen our locking away an offtake partner sooner tion, project-wise we are also strong with
success and want to jump on the back rather than later would be handy for An- a small capex, short timeline to produc-
of it, but we are pretty sure we have a dromeda, which was closing in on 51% tion and some significant short-term and
very solid case after scanning the whole ownership of the Poochera JV at the time long-term demand for our material.”
of the country; there is nothing significant of print. – Mark Andrews
around other than what we have tied up.” The PFS on Poochera is likely to be
Andromeda has non-binding MoUs in finished sometime in late April, with the

Pre-production capex of $9 million would be required to kick-start a DSO operation at Poochera

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 71