Impact (ASX:IPT) shows minimal environmental effect for high-purity Lake Hope alumina

Impact Minerals’ baseline environmental surveys have indicated no threatened or priority species present on the Lake Hope salt pan and prefeasibility studies remain on track for its high-purity alumina project in the Western Australian South West.

Combined with heritage clearance from the Ngadju Aboriginal group, the survey further supports a mining lease application and guidance for environmental and cultural heritage management plans.

Impact Minerals has major plans for Lake Hope and has appointed standout hire David English to lead its prefeasibility study with near-record times from discovery to production on his resume at the eminent Australian mines of De Grussa and Nova-Bollinger.

Managing Director Dr Mike Jones said the results further confirmed the proposed development of Lake Hope will have an exceptionally small environmental impact.

“Given that mining will only leave a hole about one to two metres deep in the lake, the environmental risk and any post-mine rehabilitation are considered to be minimal at this stage,” Dr Jones said.

Dr Jones said he was also pleased to announce the appointment of Indigenous Services Australia, which played a pivotal role in Nova-Bollinger negotiations to help advance discussions with the Ngadju group.

“We have appointed a well-respected and very experienced feasibility study manager for Lake Hope, Mr David English,” he said.

“David has already added significantly to the team and our forward plans, and we are on schedule to complete the PFS by the end of the year.”

Impact’s leader added the appointment allows Roland Gotthard, the man who discovered Lake Hope and developed the metallurgical process to produce its high-purity alumina, to focus on metallurgy and accelerate end-product development.

Production of high-purity alumina exceeding 99.99 per cent purity was already a marked off key milestone for Lake Hope, backing up a scoping study indicating it could produce at potentially cheaper costs than any other global competitor.

With the top two metres of a pair of salt lakes currently holding a JORC resource of 880,000 tonnes at over 25% aluminium oxide, Impact believes it has something remarkable in the clays of Lake Hope.

The Perth-based explorer has metallurgical work ongoing, and also has drill results being interpreted from the other nearby lakes to see if they match up to a similar tenor.

Impact has continued to up its stake in WA’s southwestern region which has typically received a minute proportion of Western Australian exploration spending.

And alongside Lake Hope, the company will soon have drill results from a large rare earth anomaly it believes could become a fully fledged clay-hosted deposit.

Watch Dr Mike Jones go into the unique nature of Lake Hope:

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