Game Changing Solid State Sodium Alumina Batteries for Grid Storage and Innovative Battery Material Products.

Altech has executed a joint venture agreement with leading German battery institute, Fraunhofer IKTS (“IKTS”) to commercialise the Sodium Alumina Solid State (SAS) Battery.

Altech, together with associated entity Altech Advanced Materials AG, is the majority owner at 75% of the joint venture company to commercialise a 100 MWh project to be situated at Altech’s site in Schwarze Pumpe, Saxony, Germany.

SAS batteries, brand named CERENERGY® Battery, use high-purity alumina for the critical ceramic solid state electrolyte, which is a strong link to Altech’s core business and competency.

The SAS batteries are lithium, graphite, copper and cobalt free, and instead use sodium (common table salt).

Altech has developed the technology to nano-coat particles of graphite (typical of those used in lithium-ion batteries) and silicon with a layer of high-purity alumina (HPA).

The use of alumina coated graphite and silicon particles within a lithium-ion battery anode are offered as a solution to increased battery life, energy capacity and reduction of the first-cycle capacity loss. The Company achieved a breakthrough with this technology, and in November 2021, announced that it had achieved a 30% higher energy density in testing performed on lithium-ion batteries.

The Company has finalised a Preliminary Feasibility Study (PFS) for the construction of a high-purity alumina (HPA) battery materials coating plant in Saxony, Germany. The PFS has achieved outstanding economics including an NPV of US$507M, IRR of 40% and payback period of 3.1 years.

Work on the preliminary engineering design for the 10,000 tpa battery materials plant is in the final stages of completion. Altech has achieved green accreditation of the project and construction is already underway for a battery materials coating pilot plant at the Schwarze Pumpe Industrial Park, Saxony, Germany.

Altech’s Malaysian high purity alumina (HPA) project is aiming to produce 4,500 tpa of 99.99% alumina (HPA). The proposed feedstock (kaolin) will be from the the Company’s 100%-owned kaolin mine at Meckering, Western Australia.

The technology that was been developed is “disruptive” and has the ability to produce HPA at one third of the current cost of production (which uses Alumnium metal as feedstock). Conservative (bank case) cash flow modelling of the HPA project shows a pre-tax net present value of US$505.6m at a discount rate of 7.5% for a 30-year project period.

The payback period is 3.8 years at full rate (4.5 years real) and the pre-tax internal rate of return is 21.9%. HPA is sued in lithium-ion batteries as well as the substrates in LEDs.

The HPA project is significantly de-risked with a bankable feasibility study completed, senior lender project finance from German government owned KfW IPEX-Bank approved, and a German EPC contractor appointed – with initial construction works at the site completed.

The Company is the process of finalising project finance with listed green bonds and a search for a joint venture equity partner.