ABx Group might be ten good reasons but one negative aspect that outweighs all the positives and stops the entire project .”
Creating change
Talking about the mining industry at large , Mark proposes : “ In a lot of ways , the industry has already implemented positive environmental changes and it will continue to do so . Further metal mining is required because metals are crucial in our day-to-day lives , but we need to ask ourselves how we can extract them with absolute minimum environmental impact .
“ One of the biggest problems is that younger generations don ’ t want to get into the industry because of the perception that mining is dirty and harmful to the planet . In my opinion , one of the best things you can do to address the climate crisis is to work in the mining industry ; you can be part of positive change and improve the industry from within .” Turning to ABx ’ s operations specifically , Mark explains : “ We have three businesses , of which two are the focus . One operation is rare earth exploration , where we ’ ve identified a ionic clay resource in Tasmania and are currently conducting further exploratory drilling . We ’ re also doing metallurgical work to understand how to extract the Rare Earth Elements ( REE ), as well as evaluating operational costs . “ REEs are a set of 17 metallic elements that sit across the bottom of the periodic table . Historically , they haven ’ t been used in large quantities , but are now frequently used in high-tech applications .”
He elaborates : “ Four of them that are used to make extremely powerful magnets , which are key components in electric vehicle engines and wind
turbines . So , as sustainability initiatives continue to spring up across the globe , the demand for these magnets , and thus REEs , is constantly increasing .
“ Our second business is a new process we ’ re developing to firstly produce
hydrogen fluoride and then aluminum fluoride , all using waste material . We ’ re taking waste from the aluminum smelting industry and reprocessing it through a chemical engineering process . We are about to build a pilot plant to test the initiative before we begin building a commercial plant .
“ We have also conducted extensive bauxite exploration , which is how the business started ,” he says . “ Today , it ’ s our smallest division and we ’ re not commencing any further bauxite exploration , but instead focusing on mining our existing bauxite resources .”
Edrill Pty Ltd is proud to be working with ABX on its rare earths project in Tasmania
www . edrillaustralia . com . au
m-mtoday . com 49