Hazer Group’s Breakthrough Hydrogen & Graphite Production Process Draws Commercial Interest in 2017

Hazer successfully transitioned from laboratory-based operations to a custom-designed and constructed pre-pilot plant located in Sydney. This plant is the first non-laboratory facility to show scalability and operation of the Hazer Process.

In December the company entered a commercial tie-up with Mineral Resources, allowing MinRes access to its disruptive graphite production technology. Under the terms of the agreement, MinRes plans to build a 1,000 tonnes-per-annum facility, which will be capable of expanding to 10,000 tonnes per annum. MinRes will also fund all commercial development, with Hazer to receive revenue-based royalties on agreed share of profits generated.

Additional 2017 Milestones Achieved:

Technology Scale-Up Progress:

• Hazer began construction on the pre-pilot plant (Jan)
• Important milestone reached with construction of the plant completed (March)
• The plant produced hydrogen and graphite for the first time (April)
• Hazer completed commissioning of the pre-pilot plant (July)
• Preliminary continuous operation achieved (Nov)

Corporate & Commercial Milestones:

• Mineral Resources increased their stake in Hazer via a $5m strategic placement (March)
• Hazer raised an additional $2.1m through a share purchase plan (April)
• MoU signed with Primetals Technologies – a joint venture of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Siemens (Oct)
• Non-binding HoA signed with Mineral Resources to develop synthetic graphite plants (Oct)
• HoA with Mineral Resources converted into a binding agreement (Dec)

Increase in Expertise:

• Hazer appointed Terry Walsh as Non-Executive Director (Feb)
• Cobus Malherbe joined the company as General Manager of Process Development (April)
• Ex-PWC Global Mining Leader Tim Goldsmith was secured as Hazer’s new Chairman (July)
• The company also significantly increased the size of the technical team across the year

Media Exposure:

• AFR – Hazer Group draws overseas interest with hydrogen breakthrough
• The Australian – Hazer Group makes ‘clean’ hydrogen from iron ore, methane
• AFR – Hazer in commercial tie-up with Mineral Resources
• The West – Mineral Resources lifts lithium exposure with deal on Hazer Group’s synthetic graphite pilot project

 

About Hazer Group Ltd (ASX: HZR)

Hazer Group Limited is a pioneering ASX-listed technology development company undertaking the commercialisation of the Hazer Process – a low cost, low emission hydrogen and graphite production process. The Hazer Process takes two ubiquitous and cheap feedstocks (natural gas and iron ore), and uses these to generate two high value, high demand products – hydrogen & synthetic graphite.

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