An innovative Australian project to produce high-value magnesium products from existing waste-water streams from salt production in the Pilbara. Processing plant construction activities start.
Having completed its land/resource access agreements, the secret that’s about to become public knowledge is that EcoMag Ltd, the maker of the purest specialty magnesium materials used as food and pharma-nutraceutical ingredients, has started the build on its demonstration project near Karratha WA. The company is the first of its kind to process a true waste, a reject bittern from solar salt operations, into high value products. It has been supported by the Western Australian Government as an innovative process, in which a resource is recovered without impacting negatively on the environment. Over the past few years EcoMag Ltd has received support from the State Government’s Regional Economic Development (RED) Grants Program.
The treatment of waste streams and tailings is becoming the new frontier for resource development. It works as long as there is an appropriate structure for Industry symbiosis. Giving away waste is not as easy as it sounds when one of the main deterrents is the tightly regulated framework making it difficult and extremely time consuming for new entrants into the waste processing business. This is all sorted now for EcoMag Limited. The company has the necessary agreements to start its build and it has started cleaning up the site in Karratha ready to produce high purity magnesium materials with the lowest carbon footprint. The company has divided its production growth path into three phases, in order to allow for controlled market penetration and to secure investment through proven technology and proof of sales.
Another Idiom which springs to mind, “The world is your oyster” also rings true for EcoMag as we are also completing our project work on using CO2 as one of our process streams. In fact we can provide some solutions to the CO2 sequestration debate, with useful materials made using waste CO2 instead of sending it to landfill for future generations to clean up. Imagine; a business that uses two waste streams to produce a sustainable and profitable material. Watch this company as it further develops its range of disruptive materials to be announced soon.
