Commonwealth Grant Awarded to Core Resources Toowong Process

Core has been awarded a federal government grant funding for its innovative Toowong Process for treating Arsenic-containing minerals.

Core Group (“Core”), the Brisbane-based mineral processing technology and innovation group, is delighted that its novel technology, The Toowong Process, has been awarded an Accelerating Commercialisation Grant by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. The grant of $986,644 matching funding over two years will enable Core to accelerate commercialisation of this important new environmental technology for the global resources industry.

Increasing levels of contaminants, including arsenic, are present in mineral products, posing an environmental and health challenge. At a time when international limits on contained arsenic are being tightened, the in situ levels of arsenic in many orebodies are rising, threatening the sustainability of these mineral projects. A finalist in the 2015 Australian Innovation Awards, The Toowong Process is a novel technology for cleaning up mineral products with elevated contaminants. No cost-effective solutions are yet established to address this issue. The technology will enable mining operations to remove contaminants to quarantine and dispose of them in an environmentally sustainable manner.

With Accelerating Commercialisation support, Core will license the Toowong Process to end-users to address this problem. Core is currently engaging with potential end-users (mines) and delivery partners (engineering houses) to enable a rapid roll-out of the Toowong Process.

Jonathan Loraine, Chair of Core said: ”We are delighted with the support from the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science in accelerating commercialisation of this important environmental technology. Core is looking forward to working with engineering partners and end-user mining projects to implement The Toowong Process to achieve a more sustainable and cleaner resources industry”.

Core is a privately owned metallurgical testing, process design, technology development and project management group. Core specialises in the environmentally-friendly treatment of complex ores, minerals, effluents and waste materials. It has a track record of developing novel processes to treat complex ores, including the Albion Process (owned by Glencore) for treating refractory precious metals ores, and the Toowong Process for removing deleterious contaminants from base metals concentrates. It has been operating in Brisbane since 1981 and serves the global mining industry with professional staff based in Queensland, Western Australia and Belgium.

Accelerating Commercialisation, a program delivered by The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, helps small and medium businesses, entrepreneurs and researchers to commercialise novel products, services and processes.