ASM Produces Rare Earth Permanent Magnets at Korean Facility

Australian Strategic Materials Limited (ASM) reports that the Korean Institute of Rare Metals (KIRAM) has successfully produced and tested two kilograms of pre-sintered rare earth permanent magnets from the company's high-purity neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) powder from its pilot plant in Korea.

KIRAM's testing provides a strong indication that the NdFeB alloy is suitable to produce rare earth permanent magnets that are commercially in demand. This test strongly shows that ASM's NdFeB alloy is suitable for producing rare earth permanent magnets for commercial needs.

ASM is focused on producing specialty metals and oxides for advanced technologies and is the 100% owner of the Dubbo Project. Located in central-western NSW, the company's cornerstone Dubbo Project has a long-term resource of zirconium, rare earths, niobium and hafnium - a globally significant source of these critical materials for a diverse range of emerging and sustainable technologies.

In a joint venture with South Korea's Zirconium Technology Corporation, the company is advancing oxide separation and metallization technologies to create a range of value-added materials from market-available precursors and, ultimately, Dubbo Project outputs. This further validates the strategy of becoming an independent and fully integrated "mine to manufacturer" crucial metal producer.

David Woodall, Managing Director of ASM, said: "The excellent support and collaborative work between the Ziron Tech and KIRAM teams delivered a truly significant result. It provides our company with confidence that our integrated business model - from the Dubbo Project to metals production - can play an important part in the Korean Government's new green deal."

Woodall said: "We now have confirmation of the quality and high purity of the permanent magnet alloy and titanium powders we can deliver to the Korean industry and eventually the global markets.

ASM is now planning to advance in the next few months with the detailed engineering, incorporating both the recently produced titanium and now the permanent magnet powders as part of an initial 5,200 tonnes per year plant in Korea, projected to be fully operational by mid-2022. This is a very significant transition for the company as we continue to progress the development of the Dubbo Project in central western, New South Wales.

KIRAM scientists used 5 kilograms of NdFeB powder produced by the company's Ziron technical team to make a strip casting sample. Then the microstructure and magnetic orientation of the strips were examined with a scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy.

A part of Ziron Tech's neodymium iron boron alloy was pressed into a 2 kg block, and the magnetic properties were measured using a vibrating sample magnetometer, and compared with similar samples made of the alloy obtained from commercial sources. These tests show that the pre-sintered rare earth permanent magnets of Korean ASM have better magnetic properties than commercial samples.

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