Bauxite Shipment Finalised
Sydney, May 8, 2019 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australian Bauxite Limited (
ASX:ABX) (ABx, ASX Code ABX) had produced and loaded 32,477 tonnes of bauxite onto the customer's ship at Bell Bay Port which is in the upper range of the contracted tonnage target of 30,000 to 33,000 of cement-grade bauxite. Grades are better than contract, as is usual for ABx.
- ABx sale tonnage of 32,477 tonnes measured by independent draught survey
- Additional orders of fertiliser-grade received earlier than expectation
- Favourable foreign exchange rate is encouraging for negotiations for next shipments
- ABx could benefit from larger-sized bulk-carrier ships from northern Tasmania
Production of additional bauxite-products continued at the Bald Hill Bauxite Project until late April.
More orders of fertiliser-grade bauxite have been received, which confirms that ABx bauxite has clean chemistry, ideal for acid-processing to produce high quality fertiliser increasingly in demand. ABx's ALCORE bauxite refining technology also exploits this ideal acid-processing performance.
Falling A$-US$ exchange rates increases ABx's bauxite competitiveness - see market summary Appendix(see link below).
Shipping is priced in US$ dollars and is increasingly important for Tasmanian exporters. ABx needs to use the largest possible ships from northern Tasmanian ports and notes that proposals to increase the maximum ship-size at Burnie Port to 75,000 tonnes in the near-term are being investigated.
Load-rate: 14,760 tonnes per day. Better than contract. QUBE Ports stevedores excelled.
Mine and screen production rates achieved by the ABx mine team and Hazell Bros contractors were above target due to improvements and innovations introduced during this operation.
Trucking delivered 33,000 tonnes to the port stockpile at Bell Bay weeks before ship arrival. Trucking was done by Dave Wagner & Son Pty Ltd which has a proven record of handling the ABx bauxite efficiently and with care shown for the public, the product and the customer, ABx.
ABx was please to work with TasPorts to secure a permanent stockpile location at Bell Bay Port.
Additional product stockpiles have been achieved, including fertiliser-grade bauxite, cement-grade bauxite and sizeable stockpiles of ALCORE refinery-grade bauxite. A sample of several tonnes of this refinery-grade bauxite will be supplied to the ALCORE Research Centre in Berkeley Vale, Central Coast NSW for refining into Aluminium Fluoride for potential customers to evaluate.
ABx has accumulated a significant quantity of ALCORE refinery-grade bauxite and is conducting an ore reserve estimation of that material.
Bald Hill Bauxite Project in Tasmania has the potential to accumulate several year's supply of ALCORE refinery-grade bauxite at marginal cost, should ALCORE Limited require it for a production-plant in Bell Bay, Tasmania.
Rehabilition has been carried out over the past months in accordance with ABx standard practice of reforming the land surface in readiness for pasture seeding in the right seasonal period.
ABx shares the concerns of local landholders about drought conditions that have affected Tasmania during recent times. ABx hopes it can still carry out seeding in the next few weeks, rain permitting.
Seasonal Complementation With Binjour Bauxite Project, QLD
Binjour project will be at maximum production during the Queensland Dry Season from April to November. ABx's bauxite mines in Tasmania achieve optimum production in Summer months from November to May. ABx's marketing partner, Rawmin of India has bauxite mines in north-western India that are restricted by the Monsoon months June to September each year.
This bauxite mining and screening operation at Bald Hill in Tasmania has confirmed that coordinated production and shipments from all 3 sets of mines will achieve a reliable year-round delivery to the customer of bauxite at a consistent specification.
All bauxite is gibbsite-rich trihydrate (THA) bauxite with very low content of the monohydrate alumina minerals boehmite and diaspore which require high temperature refining.
These bauxite specifications in Table 1 (see link below) are ideally suited for low-temperature alumina refineries.
To view tables and figures, please visit:
http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/COL62P6J
About ABx Group Limited
ABx Group Limited (ABx) (ASX:ABX) is a uniquely positioned Australian company delivering materials for a cleaner future.
The three priority projects are:
- Heavy rare earths: Supplying light and heavy rare earths from Tasmania into Western supply chains
o Processing Options Analysis conducted in partnership with external experts
- Clean fluorine chemical production: Producing industrial chemicals from aluminium smelter by-product (ALCORE)
o Continuous pilot plant under construction in Bell Bay, Tasmania
- Near-term bauxite production: Mining bauxite resources for the aluminium, cement and fertiliser industries
o Agreements executed with Good Importing International for bauxite projects in Queensland and New South Wales, and $2.7 million initial payment has been received
o Approvals well advanced for DL130 bauxite project in northern Tasmania
ABx endorses best practices on agricultural land and strives to leave land and environment better than we find it. We only operate where welcomed.
| ||
|
