A pilot mineral plant was launched in Bromley last March to test the extraction of magnesium hydroxide from the rock.
The company produces a range including industrial-grade magnesium, high-value minerals and silica for concrete applications, in a carbon-free extraction process generating no harmful waste.
Aspiring is in talks with four companies in North America and Europe about the cleantech and is sending feed stock to customers so they can evaluate and test them.
The options are to manufacture domestically, license the technology or develop joint ventures.
In the meantime, Southland is being considered a prime location for its process because of easy access to feed stock, reasonably-priced power and nearby companies likely interested in its products.
Chief executive Mark Chadderton said they were looking at the feasibility of building a production plant in Southland, eventually employing 80 to 90 staff at full scale.
A large attraction for producing magnesium alloys was nearby Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter, he said.
"Tiwai Point is literally across the road from the quarry we would potentially get our feed stock from.
"It all points to Southland being the home of Aspiring Materials in the future."
He said building a facility in Greenhills made sense as two active quarries produced large supplies of olivine rock and secondary applications could be developed.
A decision based on the value proposition would be made next year, he said.
The company is backed by leading New Zealand investors including Icehouse Ventures, Motion Capital and K1W1.
Funding has come from the Bill Gates Foundation via an energy programme, an overseas accelerator programme and the government.
Mr Chadderton said this round was expected to be closed early this year with a further round needed to fund the next phase of growth.
He said they were working to secure sales next year for the technology with silica and hydrogen products attracting strong interest.
Mr Chadderton said a magnesium alternative had major potential as 95% of production at this stage was from China.
"The availability of magnesium metal lends itself to the manufacturing of a range of alloys which can be used in aeronautics, autonomous vehicles and automobiles."
Magnesium is 25% lighter than aluminium and in high demand.
Chinese supplies carry high tariffs and US prices are almost twice that of the London metal exchange.
Mr Chadderton is a co-founder of the firm with Dr Chris Ozes.
He said magnesium exported to the US would have a considerable mark-up and be significantly cleaner than the traditional process generating up to 28 tonnes to 40 tonnes of emissions per tonne of magnesium.
The Aspiring process produces nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) hydroxides which are essential for making lithium-ion batteries.
Unlike other extraction methods, Aspiring’s process has no waste and little land impact.
Much of the feed stock they were looking at was waste material from previous mining activities, Mr Chadderton said.
Anything unused would end up in the silica product used in concrete manufacturing to decarbonise that industry.
Magnesium hydroxide can be used for carbon capture and this was demonstrated with PepsiCo at its Auckland site last year.
Future options include cleaner-burning biogas and manufacturing magnesium oxide into a fertiliser as 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes are imported each year from China, India and Australia.
