Company Interview / Unlocking $15B critical mineral deposit in WA's salt lakes | TIP Emerging Wealth Winners

Impact Minerals (ASX: IPT) is positioning its Lake Hope project in Western Australia as a potentially world-class source of high purity alumina (HPA), a critical material used in semiconductors, lithium-ion batteries, sapphire glass, and defence applications including missile systems.

CEO Mike Jones estimates the shallow deposit could represent up to $15 billion of in-ground value, located within the top two metres of surface material, making it relatively low-cost to extract and process. HPA supply globally is small, around 70,000 tonnes annually, and largely dominated by China, though much of its output is not suitable for high-end applications. He says this creates a niche opportunity for high-purity, non-Chinese supply chains.

Jones says a key breakthrough has been identifying a proprietary processing pathway based on sulfate chemistry found in the salt lake system, which overcomes previous industry bottlenecks in converting common alumina feedstocks into ultra-high purity material.

Impact has also acquired ChemX Materials’ processing technology out of administration for $11 million, integrating it with its Lake Hope feedstock to potentially reduce costs and improve efficiency. Early-stage integration suggests meaningful process synergies between the two systems.

The company is also working with Edith Cowan University under a federally funded research program to apply membrane technology to mineral processing, with early results including potash byproduct recovery and a new patent application for iron removal technology. Jones says these innovations may further improve project economics.

Strategically, Impact is transitioning from pure exploration into development, with plans to advance toward production and potentially list on Nasdaq by 2027 to access North American demand driven by EV battery “gigafactory” expansion.

While still in development phase, Jones says Lake Hope represents a rare combination of scale, simplicity of mining, and exposure to fast-growing critical minerals demand.

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