Australian Strategic Materials (ASM the Company) is pleased to announce it has been awarded a A$5 million grant under the Australian Federal Government’s International Partnership in Critical Minerals (IPCM) Program.
Above: Minister for Resources the Hon Madeleine King MP (centre) visited the Dubbo Project to announce the IPCM grant funding for ASM. Left Mark Coulton MP, Federal Member for Parkes. Right: Chris Jordaan, ASM Chief Operating Officer.
The grant funding will be matched by ASM and used to progress work to identify alternative, capital efficient and nearer term options for producing rare earth elements at the Dubbo Project (RE Options Assessment and Pilot Program).
A media release issued by Minister for Resources the Hon Madeleine King MP, said the Albanese Government is putting Dubbo at the heart of its plans to grow Australia’s critical minerals and rare earths industry in New South Wales by providing further support for miner Australian Strategic Materials Limited.
“Government support to refine rare earths is important for our sovereign capabilities and will help our trading partners meet their economic, national security and emission reduction commitments,” said Minister King.
The RE Options Assessment and Pilot Program will involve engineering, sampling, metallurgical testing, and a pilot program at ASM’s pilot facility located at ANSTO (Australia’s Nuclear, Science and Technology Organisation) in New South Wales. In addition, ASM will be working with international partners to deliver the program of work. These activities are critical to ASM progressing key funding activities and taking final investment decision on the Dubbo Project which is targeted for the first half of 2026.
“This funding recognises the Dubbo Project’s national and international strategic importance. With this funding, we will be able to undertake important work to identify lower capital and shorter implementation pathways to unlock rare earth production at the Dubbo Project and ensure a focused completion of our final FEED (Front-End Engineering Design).”
Ms Rowena Smith, ASM Managing Director & CEO
Left: Geotechnical drilling being conducted at the Dubbo Project as part of the RE Options Assessment
The Scheme encourages businesses to run projects that reduce emissions or store carbon, by using new technology, upgrading equipment, changing business practices, and changing the way vegetation is managed. Measured increases of in-soil carbon content can earn ACCUs, which can potentially be offset against emissions.
Earlier this year, we were pleased to receive confirmation from the Clean Energy Regulator that the Toongi Soil Carbon Project has been registered as an eligible offset project under the Scheme.
As we continue the development of the Dubbo Project, ASM is committed to supporting the drive toward net zero. Through innovative projects such as this, as well as actively managing and minimising greenhouse gas emissions, we aim to continuously improve our carbon footprint and meet our emission reduction targets.
Trial sites to grow woody biomass crops at Toongi will be part of the NSW Climate Change Fund’s Biomass for Bioenergy Project
ASM’s latest Dubbo Project Community Newsletter provides a wrap-up of the project progress we’ve made and highlights where the ASM team has continued to build positive partnerships with local stakeholders.
In recent months a number of sustainability initiatives at the Dubbo Project have been progressed or completed, including:
The signing of a contract with the NSW Department of Primary Industries to demonstrate how woody biomass crops can potentially be integrated into land management options for ASM’s subsidiary, Toongi Pastoral Company.
Completion of our annual vegetation and Pink-Tailed Worm-Lizard survey in partnership with Area Environmental.
ASM’s latest results for terbium and dysprosium separation at the ANSTO pilot plant have exceeded target specifications.
ASM is pleased to announce excellent results from its latest terbium (Tb) and dysprosium (Dy) heavy rare earth (RE) separation test work. The results confirm the design capability of the Dubbo Project’s advanced process flowsheet to produce high purity Tb and Dy oxides at industry leading product quality.
The pilot plant test work was conducted by ANSTO, Australia’s Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation. Results show the process is capable of producing Tb and Dy oxide product streams that meet or exceed target specifications of >99.99% for Tb and > 99.95% for Dy, at steady state.
“These excellent results demonstrate the strength of ASM’s advanced technical capability. Producing both light and heavy rare earth oxides at high purity sets the Dubbo Project and ASM apart and allows us to offer industry leading product quality to our offtake partners.”
ASM Chief Operating Officer Chris Jordaan with engineers from Bechtel Australia inspecting the Shibble Bridge in Dubbo.
There has been plenty happening at our Dubbo Project and within the Dubbo community over recent months.
Our latest Community Newsletter provides a wrap-up of the project progress we’ve made and highlights where the ASM team has continued to build positive partnerships with local stakeholders.
From a project perspective, the non-process infrastructure (NPI) study work with Bechtel Australia is well underway. The study work will advance the engineering maturity of the NPI design in key areas outside of the process plant, including:
Residue storage and handling facilities,
Site water management,
Utility design and supply, and
Site establishment planning.
Significantly, this work will contribute to developing capital and operating costs estimates key to ASM making its final investment decision on the Dubbo Project by the end of 2024.
Australian Strategic Materials (ASM) is pleased to announce the award of a consultancy services agreement to Bechtel Australia Pty Ltd (Bechtel) for the provision of engineering services for non-process infrastructure (NPI) study work to support advancing the Company’s Dubbo Project.
This work will contribute to developing capital and operating costs estimates key to ASM making its final investment decision (FID) on the Dubbo Project.
The Dubbo Project site
“We are pleased to confirm this agreement with Bechtel – a trusted partner with extensive experience in this area of work. With federal funding confirmed [for this work] in May, we have progressed in line with our project plan to put the contract in place, commence this important aspect of our early establishment activities and keep us on track for FID by the end of 2024.”
Rowena Smith, ASM Managing Director
Bechtel will commence work immediately, with the term of the contract running until 31 December 2024.
Global mining executive Ms Rowena Smith, has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of ASM, after former Managing Director, Mr David Woodall stepped down.
Ms Smith has been ASM’s Chief Operating Officer since joining the company in 2021. During this time she has led ASM’s critical minerals and rare earths Dubbo Project team, and overseen the construction and commissioning of ASM’s first high purity metals plant in Korea.
In announcing Ms Smith’s appointment, ASM Chair Mr Ian Gandel said:
“The Board is delighted to appoint Ms Smith as CEO. She has demonstrated she is a highly capable leader, with extensive experience and an impressive track record in the mining sector.”
Ian Gandel, Chair, ASM Board
“The Board has confidence Ms Smith’s appointment will deliver a seamless leadership transition, enabling ASM to continue to focus on delivering its mine-to-metals strategy.“
Ms Smith said she was thrilled to accept the CEO role at such a crucial time for ASM and the global critical metals industry.
I am excited to be taking up the leadership of ASM through this next phase of its development, particularly as we seek to progress our Dubbo Project and supply industry with the high-tech metals vital for a sustainable energy future
Ms Rowena Smith
“This is a crucial time for our industry, and for Australia, to claim its place on the world stage with critical minerals and rare earths projects like Dubbo, which can offer quality and reliable, supply alternatives to a currently heavily monopolised and unstable global market. I look forward to leading the ASM team as CEO and taking the next steps in our journey together.”
Ms Smith has almost 30 years of global mining experience in various senior roles including strategy, commercial, operations and ESG. Prior to joining ASM, Ms Smith was South32’s Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President Supply, leading teams across Australia, South Africa, Mozambique, Colombia and the United States.
Ms Smith has also held roles with Rio Tinto and BHP for Nickel West, including as Head of Resource Planning & Development and Projects, Manager Strategy and Acquisitions, and General Manager Kwinana Nickel Refinery.
Craig Mansour, Macquarie Anglican Grammar School and Fergus Job, TPC
Australian Strategic Materials (ASM) and our subsidiary Toongi Pastoral Company (TPC) are excited to announce our partnership with Macquarie Anglican Grammar School’s new – Macquarie Agricultural Pathways Program!
Starting next term, the program will see a targeted group of students in Year 7 at the school, engage in weekly farm visits to TPC sites. The students will play an active role in day to day farm operations and be exposed to all areas of an environmental and agricultural business. They will be able to apply their learnings in areas of mathematics, science and technology (STEM), and agriculture in a real-world context.
This is at the core of what we are striving to achieve at Macquarie, the development of resilient young people who are ready and willing to make a difference in the world. We educate students to be all that they can be. This means, we need to meet our young at their point of need. This program allows us to work together to develop them as highly-skilled, well-rounded leaders of Agriculture
Headmaster Craig Mansour, Macquarie Anglican Grammar School
Macquarie’s Agricultural Pathways Program will assist students in transitioning what they learn in the classroom into their real world, and to develop the skills necessary for employment in the Agriculture sector directly, or to prepare for entry into Tertiary-based programs.
Together, we are moulding opportunities for students who haven’t yet found their `fit’ in traditional education pathways. At TPC we want to engage and inspire these students, and expand the choices available to them, now and later in life.
Fergus Job, Manager at Toongi Pastoral Company
We look forward to welcoming the first group of students to the program next term.
Australian Strategic Materials (ASM) has announced that following ongoing discussions with HEC in relation to the development of the Dubbo Project, it has signed a Heads of Agreement with Hyundai Engineering Corporation Co., Ltd., to exclusively negotiate with HEC the delivery of the FEED, which could progress to the EPC.
The agreement for the exclusive negotiation follows the request for proposal process run by ASM for FEED for the Dubbo Project, where HEC have been identified by ASM as the preferred candidate based on HEC’s experience and capability.
Under the HoA, ASM and HEC have entered into an exclusivity period for the award of FEED by 31 March 2022 and subject to the successful delivery of FEED for the award of EPC until 25 February 2023. The Company’s current target is for the FEED contract to be awarded in Q1 2022, and for the delivery of the FEED in Q4 2022. The terms of the FEED and any EPC (including the price, scope, and schedule) are yet to be agreed by the parties.
ASM Managing Director David Woodall said exclusively engaging with HEC was another key milestone in moving the Dubbo Project towards a Final Investment Decision and demonstrates the support the Dubbo Project has from key stakeholders in Korea.
The team at HEC are impressive being at the forefront of providing innovative and sustainable engineering solutions that will enable the successful delivery of our Dubbo Project, a key to our “mine to metal” strategy.
Meeting HEC CEO Mr Kim Chang-Hag and his team shows the quality project partner HEC brings. The desire of both HEC and ASM to work in partnership to deliver the Dubbo Project with significant benefits to both Korea and Australia puts us in a great position as we continue discussions with Korean financial institutions to fund the development of Dubbo.
Mr David Woodall
HEC Chief Executive Officer Kim Chang-Hag said:
HEC has delivered large projects successfully globally, and we are delighted to be working with ASM on FEED progressing to EPC to develop the Dubbo Project. We believe we can deliver an innovative and optimised solution to support the development of the Dubbo Project and ASM’s critical metals business in a partnership that helps Korea secure the critical metals it needs for its manufacturing industries.
