ASX: HVY - Heavy Minerals
- Matt Birney
- Jan 29
- 3 min read
Heavy Minerals Ltd: From trash to treasure; making industrial garnets from copper tailings
Heavy Minerals Executive Chairman Adam Schofield on 3AW, 2GB, 4BC & 6PR Bulls N' Bears Report
Listen to ASX listed Heavy Minerals Ltd Executive Chairman Adam Schofield talk to Bulls N’ Bears’ Matt Birney about Heavy Mineral’s curious contract to turn copper tailings into valuable industrial garnets.
TO LISTEN TO THE HEAVY MINERALS AUDIO INTERVIEW - CLICK BELOW
Heavy Minerals has just locked in a binding commercial agreement that moves the company decisively from study mode towards production of hard rock almandine garnet. Management has executed a binding tailings processing agreement with Hillgrove Resources to extract the garnet from the tailings at Hillgrove’s operating Kanmantoo copper mine in South Australia. In what looks like a win for both parties, Heavy Minerals will turn what would have been a nuisance waste stream for Hillgrove into a payable industrial product.
RADIO INTERVIEW - TRANSCRIPT
Matt Birney - Welcome to Bulls N' Bears brought to you today by ASX listed industrial minerals company Heavy Minerals.
Matt Birney - I'm Matt Birney and I'm joined now by the Executive Chairman of Heavy Minerals, Adam Schofield.
Matt Birney - Hi, Adam.
Adam Schofield - Hi, Matt. Thanks for having us.
Matt Birney - Okay. Well, Heavy Minerals has just locked in a binding commercial agreement that will move the company decisively from study mode towards production of hard rock almandine garnet. Management has executed a binding tailings agreement with Hillgrove Resources to extract the garnet from the tailings at Hillgrove’s operating copper mine in South Australia. In what looks like a win for both parties, a rarity I might say, Heavy Minerals will turn what would have been a nuisance waste stream for Hillgrove into a payable industrial product.
Matt Birney - Okay, Adam, let's start with the facts. What exactly have you signed with Hillgrove and why?
Adam Schofield - We've signed an agreement with Hillgrove knowing that their copper production is directly associated with garnet alteration. We've identified that their tail storage facility contains a large amount of garnets and their active processing generates a garnet stream as a waste product and we have set up a facility design which will extract that garner from that tail stream.
Matt Birney - Okay. Well, under that agreement when will you start producing garnet and how much will you produce?
Adam Schofield - We're looking to commence production at this at the end of this year subject to our financial investment decision. In terms of how much we will produce, we're looking to produce 50,000 tonnes of finished product initially and we intend to ramp that up to 100,000 tonnes in the near term.
Matt Birney - What technical work have you done to give you confidence that this particular waste stream will convert well into garnet?
Adam Schofield - Initially we extracted a 12 tonne bulk sample directly from their live tail stream that was then processed to produce approximately one tonne of finished garnet product and we have subsequently tested that product in an industrial water jetting application and generated a number of products which are exceptionally well performing and directly suited for the water jet market.
Matt Birney - What is almandine garnet used for? Who buys it and how big is the market?
Adam Schofield - So water jetting is the application market. It's an engineering process where they cut steel plates and things like that and the market globally is around 500,000 tonnes of material.
Matt Birney - Adam Schofield from Heavy Minerals Limited.
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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