Andromeda ramps up to first Great White production – Australian Mining

Kaolin is an ore composed of hydrated aluminium silicates, such as kaolinite and halloysite. Used in ceramics, paint, plastics and many other products.

Andromeda Metals has upgraded its Streaky Bay pilot plant at the Great White project in South Australia as the company eyes its first commercial production of halloysite-kaolin.

The pilot plant was upgraded to replicate the proposed Great White wet processing plant and includes new screening and hydro-cyclones.

It comes as Andromeda commences a bulk sample drilling program at Great White, to provide material for multiple projects in the halloysite market.

The drilling will provide approximately 1.5 tonnes of high-purity halloysite-kaolin to Andromeda and joint venture company Minotaur Explorations collectively-owned Natural Nanotech.

In partnership with University of Newcastles Global Innovative Centre for Advanced Nanomaterials (GICAN), Natural Nanotech will undertake research and development into new technology applications of halloysite nanotubes.

Great White halloysite-kaolin has previously been successfully synthesised by GICAN to create advanced nanomaterials to specifically adsorb CO2 from a mixture of gases.

Up to 1.1 tonne of CO2 per tonne of material has been achieved and work is ongoing to target the capture of two tonnes of CO2 per tonne of material.

This is in addition to Andromedas current definitive feasibility studies for its Great White CRM (ceramics) and Great White PRM (coatings) products.

Andromeda has already produced 70 kilograms of ultrabright, high-purity Great White PRM product as marketing samples for its offtake partners.

Halloysites have also shown potential to benefit applications in technology, medicine, agriculture, cosmetics and environmental remediation.

Andromeda will also aim to improve the purity of its halloysites with the installation of a new pilot-scale kaolin processing centrifuge at Streaky Bay.

In June, Andromeda signed an offtake agreement for 70,000 tonnes per annum of high-purity kaolin from Great White.

Large commodity trading house, Chinese-based Jiangsu Mineral Sources International Trading (MSI), locked in with Andromeda for an initial five-year term.

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Andromeda ramps up to first Great White production - Australian Mining