Altech Chemicals Ltd. exercised its option to purchase about 94 hectares of land at Meckering in Western Australia, where the company's granted and fully permitted kaolin mining lease M70/1334 is located.

According to a May 2016 estimate, the M70/1334 mining lease contains 12.7 million tonnes of kaolin resource at 29.5% aluminum oxide, including a kaolin ore reserve of 1.2 million tonnes at 30% aluminum oxide.

Ore from the mining lease will provide feedstock for the company's proposed Malaysian high-purity alumina plant, according to an Oct. 17 release.

Altech received approval from the Western Australian government to begin mining at its Meckering kaolin deposit in March.