Following an intensive period of work on several fronts, we are pleased to provide the following summary and update on recent progress.

Most recently, we have reached a stage in the development of our technologies and key partnerships where we are ready to seek further capital to support our rapidly advancing research programs and business growth.  We will shortly launch a Rights Issue that will represent excellent value and opportunity for existing shareholders and new investors looking to increase their stake in our exciting company as we prepare for our next phase of growth.  The strength in this initiative is built on the back of our recent achievements in commercialising our water treatment and graphene processing technologies.  Specifically, these include:

• The finalisation of our formal agreement with CleanTeQ for the development of SuperSand and graphene oxide membranes for water and waste water treatment;
  Award of CRC-P funding from the Australian government which will see over $1.1 million spent on water treatment technologies, bringing them to a market-ready stage in 18 months;
• Award of licence for know-how and intellectual property from Monash in relation to SuperSand; and
• Engagement of an additional postdoctoral researcher to work on our graphene oxide membrane technology.

Adding further value is our work in developing manufacturing capabilities for graphene and graphene oxide production in collaboration with Laminar Co Ltd.  This has included:

• Signing of an MOU to develop:
  • Flow reaction approaches to oxidise graphite and minimise the required quantities of strong acids and oxidisers, delivering enormous improvements in safety, reduced chemical usage and excellent scalability; and
  • A fluidised bed filtration method for desalting colloidal GO to dramatically reduce the equipment cost and amount of process water needed to produce GO.
• Development of patent materials and submission of an application for industrial processes on “shear assisted electrochemical exfoliation of two dimensional materials” (Patent Application PCT/AU2015/000698).
  It is this work that may well lead to Ionic’s first revenues through licencing of its intellectual property.

On our graphene planar supercapacitors, we have recently commissioned the next phase of research which will be executed over the next 9 months.  The output from this phase will be a fully operational, 3D “stacked” device that can be compared on a like-for-like basis with existing products in the market for high-tech supercapacitors.  Our current stream of work on electrode configuration and electrolyte optimisation will be continued and our position strengthened in filing of new patents.  Device assembly and benchmarking work begins in the next few months.

Our imminent Rights Issue will be an excellent opportunity for investors to build their stake in Ionic, obtain significant value for their investment and continue to support these exciting programs of research and development, bringing technologies to market that can change the world.

More information to follow soon!