Orion’s Battery Precursor Production Project is aimed at establishing the Company as a fully integrated base metal mining and processing business that produces high-value metals for the fast-growing battery materials sector.
Orion has an exclusivity agreement with Stratega Metals to undertake amenability test work on the use of carbo-chloro metal vapour extraction technology (CCMVT) for base metal refining of polymetallic concentrates produced from Orion’s Northern Cape projects.
This agreement gives Orion the exclusive right to earn a 75% interest in Stratega by funding the establishment of a bespoke test work facility and demonstration plant at Orion’s Prieska Copper Zinc Mine site.
Stratega has secured licencing for carbo-chloro metal vapour extraction technology (CCMVT), which separates refined carbonyl metal powders from the metal concentrates. The key reaction in CCMVT uses carbonyl (carbon monoxide), which is harvested from the air and recycled within a sealed, pressurised reactor vessel and the circuit then fed to distillation vessels to recover separated refined carbonyl metal powders.
The CCMVT refining process promises very attractive characteristics including:
- A dry process using no water;
- Low energy consumption amenable to renewable energy power supply;
- Near zero emissions – only minor non-toxic waste products;
- Small compact plant with a very small footprint; and
- Production of metal products that trade at significant premiums to contained metal targeting the battery and specialist chemical industries.
- Treating higher metallurgical recovery –lower grade concentrates maximises value extraction of the ore deposit.
These characteristics make it an ideal fit with Orion’s ambitions to become a fully integrated mining and processing business that produces premium metal products with strong ESG credentials that are certified from point-of-source to market.
