Samso News: Impact Minerals Limited – CRC-P Research Progress Strengthens Lake Hope HPA with Potash Optionality – Is HPA still a play on the ASX.
- Noel Ong
- 1 day ago
- 9 min read
Announcement
Lake Hope High Purity Alumina (HPA) Project Update – 9 January 2026 (view the announcement)
Acquisition of the Huonville gold district at Broken Hill - 23 January 2026 (view the announcement)
The narrative that is driving the Impact Minerals Limited HPA has been an interest to the Samso platform since we first covered the story in May 2023 (Impact Minerals Limited (ASX: IPT) - A Low Cost HPA story in Western Australia.) with a Coffee with Samso. This has been a long process, like most mineral resource projects, for Impact Minerals and this recent update has prompted Samso News to take a look.
The second ASX update in regards to consolidating its position at the Broken Hill project is very logical for Impact minerals as the market sentiment is now clearly focussing back on the core metals group of gold, copper and base metals. The management of Impact Minerals do appear to have a stronger lean towards the traditional metals so the new focus could be a key component for shareholders and potential investors.
I do like that fact that Impact Minerals appear to be focussing back onto its metals projects but it will be interesting if the HPA story continue to go through its paces over time.
Impact Minerals Limited (ASX: IPT) has released an update on its Lake Hope High Purity Alumina (HPA) Project in Western Australia (Figure 1), reporting strong technical progress achieved during the first 12 months of its A$2.87 million Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) programme. The update highlights advances in membrane technologies applied to Impact’s patented three-stage HPA process, with emerging implications for lower operating costs, improved water efficiency, and meaningful potash by-product opportunities.
Figure 1: Lake Hope Project (source: IPT)
The Business of Impact Minerals Limited: The HPA Chapter
Lake Hope HPA Project (80% owned) in Western Australia.
Development of a patented, low-cost, low-carbon three-stage HPA process.
CRC-P programme conducted in partnership with CPC Engineering and the Mineral Recovery Research Centre (MRRC) at Edith Cowan University.
Focus on integrating membrane technologies to enhance economics, sustainability, and by-product recovery.
Benchmark production scale referenced in the PFS: 10,000 tonnes per annum of HPA.
Highlights – Membrane Technology Unlocking Potash and Cost Reduction Pathways | 9 January 2026
Significant technical progress achieved in the first 12 months of the A$2.87M CRC-P programme, supporting the Lake Hope Pre-Feasibility Study outcomes.
High-purity sulphate of potash (SOP >94%) successfully produced via direct membrane crystallisation as a Stage 1 by-product (Figure 2).
High water recovery achieved from SOP brine, producing high-purity reusable water, reducing operating costs and environmental footprint.
Identification of a magnesium-potash (Mg-potash) pathway, enabling potential premium fertiliser products.
Emergence of a potential low-cost iron removal method from the hydrochloric acid circuit in Stage 2 (Direct Iron Extraction Method).
Identification of a new standalone potash and acid production pathway, independent of the HPA flowsheet, with potential for an additional mining project at Lake Hope.
Evaluation of Eutectic-Freeze Crystallisation technology to further enhance potash recovery and wastewater management options.
Figure 2: Crystals of high-purity Sulphate of Potash (K2SO4) produced by direct membrane crystallisation, offering lower Capex and Opex compared to conventional SOP crystallisers. (source: IPT)
Leadership Commentary
Impact’s Managing Director, Dr Mike Jones, commented:
“The first year of CRC-P work has achieved notable technical progress, significantly boosting the value of the Lake Hope project. Our teams at ECU and CPC Engineering are demonstrating clear pathways to lowering operating costs, enhancing water efficiency, and producing high-value fertiliser byproducts—especially high-purity SOP and Mg-potash. As our understanding of potash crystallisation deepens, we have recognised a much larger potash opportunity that could develop alongside the Lake Hope Project. Additionally, we have identified a brine freezing technology that may further enhance the economics of potash production.
These outcomes, based around elegant membrane technologies, strongly support the advantages of our patented HPA process for producing low-carbon, low-waste HPA and also highlight the potential to fully realise the commercial opportunities of the Lake Hope project. We are very excited to see what further discoveries we can make in 2026 as we receive results from our ongoing extensive testwork”.
Mineral Recovery Research Centre’s Leader and CRC-P Lead Investigator, Associate Prof. Amir Razmjou, said:
We are pleased with the strong progress to date in integrating membrane technologies into the HPA production flowsheet. The results are promising in reducing the water footprint and environmental impact, while enabling high-purity SOP production and recovering waste energy to minimise overall energy input. In 2026, we expect further advances in membrane integration across the flowsheet, alongside pilot-scale development and optimisation of the key process steps.
About the Project
Impact’s patented HPA process is structured as a three-stage metallurgical flowsheet (Figure 3):
Stage 1: Alkaline leaching using potassium hydroxide (KOH), producing SOP-rich brine as a valuable by-product.
Stage 2: Hydrochloric acid leach producing aluminium chloro-hexahydrate (ACH).
Stage 3: Calcination of ACH to produce high-purity alumina.
Membrane technologies are being assessed across multiple points in the flowsheet, including water reuse, mineral recovery, acid recovery, and waste management, with Stage 1 potash recovery being the primary focus of current work.
Figure 3: Patented metallurgical flowsheet for Impact’s 3-stage HPA process. Stage 1 is shown in detail, with Stages 2 and 3 simplified for this report. (source: IPT)
Highlights – Huonville Consolidates Impact’s Control at Broken Hill | 23 Jan 2026
Impact Minerals has acquired a 100% interest in the 55 km² Huonville tenement (EL8024), covering most of the historic Huonville gold district, 25 km southeast of Broken Hill, NSW.
The acquisition expands Impact’s Broken Hill landholding to ~1,800 km², almost fully surrounding the Broken Hill lead–zinc–silver deposit (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Regional magnetic image showing the Broken Hill Line of Lode, EL8024 Huonville, and Impact’s surrounding licences. (source: IPT)
Huonville is considered prospective for copper and copper-gold mineralisation, based on a new exploration model developed during Impact’s participation in the BHP Xplor program.
Historical shallow workings returned high-grade legacy rock chip gold results (Figure 5), with assays reported up to ~83 g/t gold, accompanied by silver, bismuth, and copper.
Figure 5: Huonville goldfield showing legacy gold assays and interpreted gold trends. (source: IPT)
The metal association is consistent with iron-oxide copper-gold (IOCG) systems, and Huonville has been identified as a potential IOCG target in government-supported prospectivity modelling.
Historical drilling was limited and shallow, with a full data review now underway, integrating results from a recent ground magnetotelluric survey.
Impact Minerals Limited’s Managing Director, Dr Mike Jones, commented:
“Huonville is the final piece of the jigsaw at Broken Hill, where we have spent the past decade assembling the largest ground-holding in the region, surrounding one of the world’s great mines. Although gold production was limited, the extent of the vein systems and the associated silver-bismuth and copper indicate they could form the upper sections of a much larger system at depth or nearby. The area was identified as a potential iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) target in publicly available prospectivity mapping conducted by well-respected consultants Kenex, and we are eager to see the results of our recent magnetotelluric surveys completed nearby to explore what might lie at depth.”
Near-term Milestones to Watch
Lake Hope (WA): Progress membrane and crystallisation testwork, including scale-up preparation for Stage 1 alkaline leaching, SOP recovery, water reuse, and evaluation of iron removal and potash pathways.
Huonville (NSW): Complete integration of legacy exploration data with recent ground magnetotelluric survey results to prioritise copper–gold and IOCG-style targets.
Portfolio-wide: Advance target definition across both projects to support next-stage technical work and future drilling decisions, subject to data validation and approvals.
Samso Concluding Comments
I like it that Impact Mineral continues to look at the Lake Hope HPA Project with the recent test work with the outlook of making the concept work. The membrane work builds on the existing flowsheet and does not alter the published Pre-Feasibility Study assumptions. How this will eventually work is another thing but with my view that the mineral resource sector just starting to gain momentum, I think Impact Mienrals should consider all value creating avenues.
This update does indicate that the potash recovery at Lake Hope has moved from concept toward a more defined process pathways. While acknowledging the project is still at bench scale, the work does highlight how by-products may offset operating costs if future steps confirm scale and quality.
For the other parts of the company portfolio of projects, the Huonville acquisition adds scale and continuity to Impact’s Broken Hill position. The ground covers historic gold workings and sits within an area already flagged as prospective for copper–gold and IOCG-style systems.
Across both projects, for shareholders, it does look good that Impact is advancing work that improves understanding before committing additional capital.
Market implications
The recent news loo to be making creating a positive vibe for the share price chart of Impact Minerals (Figure 6). A sharp sike on the 9th of January, potentially on the back of the HPA update will be good news to all stakeholders as 2026 does start to look promising for metals, The recent major pull back of the Silver and Gold price on the 30th January may be dramatic but if it comes back, this could be a resetting of the run. Kind of the market taking a rest and resetting itself for continued growth.
Figure 6: Share price chart for Impact Minerals Limited as of 2nf February 2026. (source: commsec)
The copper price look like its making a sideways movement since the beginning of January which may mean a period of consolidation. Nickel did have some decline but in the scheme of its rise from the bottom, it was probably a good pull back. The more volatile Gold and Silver pricing was the highlight of that dramatic day.
Figure 7: Price chart for Gold, Silver, Copper and Nickel. (source: Trading Economics)
Disregarding the focus on the metal pricing, the general consensus in market chatter is that metal pricing will continue to move upward for at least the first half of 2026. The share price of Impact has shown that the market does like the updates and hence, a focused DYOR process will be highly encouraged.
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