People and places

Abstract

2013 was a tough year for Orbite, but we have turned a corner. Things are going well and are on track. The first challenge and priority is finalising our high purity alumina (HPA) facility. That presents a list of challenges, but we are tackling them very well and are giving ourselves a 12-month timeline, following the raising of equity financing. We started on the HPA building in January this year. Priority number one is putting the first HPA plant into commercial production at the beginning of 2015, ramping it up to 3tpd in the first quarter of next year and finding commercial contracts with our potential customers, with whom we are discussing right now. The HPA facility is actually a cornerstone for the other commercial activities, notably the waste monetisation. In 2015 we'll be converting and finalising the HPA facility to the chloride-based technology. The facility will become an industrial demo for our technology platform. It will then be used to finalise the design, and be able to bring in the red mud, fly ash or other mine tailings that we are looking at. The scaled-up plant will allow us to finalise the design of the first industrial in-situ plant. Australian rare earths producer, Lynas Corp., appointed Amanda Lacaze as CEO. Amanda takes over from Eric Noyrez, who served as CEO for just over a year, leading the start-up of the company's rare earths mine at Mount Well, Australia. Lacaze was previously CEO of Commander Communications and executive chairman of Orion Telecommunications.