Parkway Minerals has signed a global strategic cooperation agreement with a subsidiary of engineering group Worley, initially for three years, to help commercialise its aMES technology. Parkway says it will enable provision of engineering, procurement and construction support to contracts executed under the agreement. The agreement incorporates an innovative revenue sharing model and mutual exclusivities, ensuring strong alignment between both parties. All intellectual property relating to the aMES technology platform, including any improvements, will remain the exclusive property of Parkway Minerals.

The activated Minerals Extraction System (aMES), is a proprietary process technology which enables the recovery of certain minerals, reagents and water from generally complex aqueous solutions including desalination, industrial and mining waste streams. In October 2019, Parkway Minerals completed a transformational transaction by acquiringan Australian unlisted public company, Consolidated Potash Corporation (CPC). Through CPC, Parkway Minerals acquired a minority interest in the Karinga Lakes Potash Project (KLPP) in NT, Australia, as well as a majority interest in the New Mexico Lithium Project (NMLP), in the United States. The CPC transaction, also resulted in Parkway Minerals acquiring the innovative aMES technology, which has been developed to process a range of challenging brine streams from the mining industry, in order to recover valuable minerals, reagents as well as produce fresh water.

In recent months, Parkway has provided several updates on progress towards building a viable aMES technology platform. Development of the technology platform is essential in enabling Parkway Minerals to leverage the aMES technology to generate royalty-type (recurring) revenues. The appeal of this relatively “capital-light” business model, is based on the expectation that Parkway Minerals will be well-placed to share in incremental value created through the application of the aMES technology at third-party projects, without necessarily needing to acquire an equity interest in a given project.

Through the agreement, Parkway Minerals has identified a number of potential aMES opportunities in its existing business development portfolio, that are likely to be assessed for suitability under this agreement.

Parkway Minerals intends to put forward a number of advanced-stage third-party projects for evaluation. Several of these projects have undergone substantial process evaluation (including successful aMES based piloting) and are operated by globally significant mining companies.

An initial opportunity generated by Parkway Minerals is planned to be advanced shortly under this agreement, as the basis for joint capability development.

Parkway Minerals Managing Director, Bahay Ozcakmak commented: “Despite current global economic disruptions, the drivers for increased efficiency, reduced waste and improved sustainability, particularly in extractive industries like mining, continue to present significant challenges and likely to become even more pressing, as environmental social governance (ESG) principles are adopted more widely, over time. The agreement announced today, is another important step on our journey towards achieving our vision of transforming global brine processing methods, through innovative technology, in order to improve sustainability and create value. Given our aspirations to leverage our ownership of the aMES™ technology platform, to build a technology leveraged resources company. Collaborative discussions between the parties have been underway for some time, with several potential project opportunities already identified. I look forward to providing further details, as appropriate.”

Taxonomy

• Mining Development