3.5 Million Tonnes Maiden Resource - Granted QLD Mining Leas
Sydney, Dec 3, 2012 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Bauxite development company, Australian Bauxite Limited (
ASX:ABZ) has completed investigative drilling as part of its due diligence with respect to Mining Lease ML80126, located 25 km south of Mundubbera and 155 km southwest of Bundaberg Port in central Queensland (see Figure 1). ABx confirms that the Inferred Resource of bauxite identified is 3.5 Million tonnes.
Establishing the resource size provides the resource size consideration for concluding final agreements to purchase the mining lease and commence early mine production to supply the buoyant bauxite market, which is currently seriously short of this type of gibbsite bauxite.
This granted, long-term mining lease ML80126 may be a fast-track route to the commencement of ABx's large Binjour Bauxite Project located 115 km southwest of Bundaberg Export Port, Queensland - see Figure 1.
Strategically significant
ABx CEO, Ian Levy said; "The discovery of a good bauxite deposit on this granted long-term Mining Lease is one of the final jigsaw pieces in establishing the first modern bauxite business in Australia since the 1960s. Production from this mining lease may commence early and kick-start the large Binjour Project several years earlier than we previously thought."
Summary of Resource
A gibbsite-rich bauxite layer, 1 to 7 metres thick, totalling 5 million tonnes has been discovered beneath a shallow layer of soil and overburden red clay at the Toondoon Mining Lease ML80126. A total of 14 drillholes totalling 186 metres were drilled and revealed a consistent, continuous deposit (see Figure 2) and enabled the estimation of an Inferred Resource.
Two estimates based on two cut-off grades were competed and are reported in Table 1 (refer to link below).
Raw In-Situ DSO Bauxite
It is common to commence operations based on those bauxite zones that contain bauxite in the ground ("in-situ") that is "DSO Bauxite" which can be exported directly (see definitions) and to stockpile the bauxite that requires screening for processing in later years. Approximately 50% of the bauxite meets DSO grades and requires no upgrade.
The estimate of DSO Bauxite is approximately 50% of the bauxite deposit as reported in Table 2 (refer to link below).
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Location and Infrastructure
The North Burnett region of Central Queensland has rural infrastructure, with regional highways passing through the bauxite areas, connecting to an export port at Bundaberg, which has ample spare port capacity (Figure 3). Shipping into and out of Bundaberg Port is via deep, sandbottomed shipping channels connected to the eastern Australian deepwater shipping lanes and does not pass over any part of the Great Barrier Reef or ecologically sensitive seafloors.
There is a well-developed state electric power grid and ample water supplies.
Natural gas pipelines connect from the Surat Basin to Gladstone through this district.
Coal mining occurs to the north and south of this region and there are several mineral deposits being assessed in the region.
There are well-established regional population centres at Mundubbera and Gayndah and ABx's large Binjour bauxite project is located between these two regional centres (see locations in Figure 1).
Gladstone (see Figure 4 below) is a major bauxite processing centre with two alumina refineries and an aluminium smelter. Gladstone is a major mineral port (coal, bauxite, coal seam gas, chemicals) that services the Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) and Yarwun alumina refineries and Australia's largest aluminium smelter at Boyne Island. Both alumina refineries and the Boyne Island aluminium smelter at Gladstone are operated by Rio Tinto Alcan.
This part of Queensland has major steel fabrication and heavy machinery workshops as well as highly experienced contractors in earth moving, mining, transport and construction.
In summary, the ABx bauxite project areas in central Queensland are supplied with power, water, communications and transport infrastructure, near well-serviced industrial centres and near to two efficient export ports that operate all year round without seasonal interruptions.
Environmental Setting
ML80126 is a fully-granted, long-term Mining Lease located in an area that is unaffected by Queensland's strategic cropping land maps.
The Mining Lease is unlikely to be affected by socio-environmental impediments.
View the full Australian Bauxite announcement including Tables and Figures at the link below:
http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-ABZ-710089.pdf
About ABx Group Limited
ABx Group Limited (ABx) (ASX:ABX) started as a bauxite miner in Tasmania in 2014 & controls the Eastern Australian Bauxite Province. In 2020 to 2023, ABx also discovered Australia’s only true ionic adsorption clay Rare Earth Elements resource at Deep Leads in pine plantations 40km west of Launceston with a JORC-compliant resource of 89 million tonnes from only 29% of the mineralised outline, averaging 844 ppm total rare earth oxides that is the most enriched in the critically important rare earths, Dy and Tb, of any Australian REE deposit.
ABx has also developed a proprietary technology to produce fluorine chemicals from an aluminium smelter waste product and return the fluorine back into the smelters, thus reducing reliance on imported aluminium fluoride.
ABx has committed a large proportion of its expenditure into Research and Development and has found ways to capitalise on the main strengths of its bauxite type which is very clean, free of all deleterious elements and can be separated into different product streams using physical, chemical and geophysical methods. It has produced and marketed specialist bauxite products for the manufacturers of fertiliser, cement with high late strength for major infrastructure such as bridges and is in the advanced stages of approvals for production of metallurgical bauxite from its Binjour Bauxite deposit with JORC-compliant resources of 37 million tonnes of bauxite, in a joint development with a Chinese-focussed Australian trading company Good Importing International.
ABx is also preparing to produce fertiliser grade and cement grade bauxite from its DL130 bauxite quarry in northern Tasmania, 40km west of Launceston. This quarry is sited in the middle of the large Deep Leads REE deposit and may one day be a site for heap leaching of the REE using a low-cost, benign leachate with the same acidity as apple juice or tea.
ABx endorses best practices on agricultural land, strives to leave land and environment better than we find it. We only operate where welcomed.
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