Calix Limited is pleased to announce today that it has executed a toll production
agreement with Green360 Technologies (ASX: GT3) (Green360) to produce calcined clay for low-carbon cement.
Highlights:
• Calix will toll process calcined clay for use in Green360’s low-carbon cement product, Eco-clay
• Up to 30,000 tonnes per annum will be processed on a cost-plus basis using an existing calciner at the Calix Technology Centre (Bacchus Marsh, Victoria)
• The agreement has an initial term of two years, with an option to extend for a further two years subject to minimum throughput
• At full throughput, the contract represents potential revenues of several million AUD per year, subject to Green360’s commercial demand
• Calix expects first revenues in FY26, extending into FY27 and FY28
• The agreement requires no capital expenditure by Calix, with all site upgrade costs funded by Green360
• Utilising existing capacity is expected to deliver operational synergies and maintain support for growth in Calix’s Magnesia business
• Calcined clay is a readily available Supplementary Cementitious Material (SCM) with the potential to reduce the carbon intensity and energy costs of cement production
Green360’s Eco-clay is a high reactivity metakaolin that aims to improve strength and durability and reduce emissions in concrete mixes by partially replacing traditional Portland cement. Under the terms of the agreement, clay, or kaolin, from Green360’s Pittong operation in Victoria, Australia, will be processed at the Calix Technology Centre to produce calcined clay, or metakaolin.
The agreement follows successful trials of the Eco-clay product manufactured using the Calix technology. Product trials included the delivery of commercial quantities of Eco-Clay to a national concrete supplier to demonstrate the product’s compliance with the industry’s existing supply chains.
The agreement is expected to support further revenue and gross profit growth for Calix and create operational synergies by leveraging existing production capacity and resources at the Calix Technology Centre.
Towards lower carbon and lower cost cement
In the making of conventional cement, limestone is calcined during the production of clinker — a process that unavoidably releases carbon dioxide from the raw material and accounts for most of the cement industry’s carbon emissions.
SCMs can be used to replace a portion of the clinker content in cement. However, the availability of conventional SCMs, such as fly ash and ground granulated blast-furnace slag, is increasingly diminishing.
Calcined clay is a readily available alternative SCM. The calcination of kaolin to metakaolin does not produce process carbon emissions and occurs at lower temperatures than the calcination of limestone. As such, calcined clay is a scalable and high potential option to replace a portion of the clinker content in cement and produce a lower-carbon intensity product with lower energy costs.
The production of calcined clay and other SCMs is an important, and complementary, solution to support the decarbonisation of cement, alongside switching to lower carbon fuels, electrification, and the capture of unavoidable process carbon dioxide during the production of clinker, as being developed by the Leilac technology.
