Australian Bauxite Limited (ASX:ABZ) Inverell-Pindaroi Drilling Program Successfully Completed And Pechey And Geham Prospects Drilling Commenced
Sydney, May 26, 2010 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Emerging bauxite exploration and development company, Australian Bauxite Limited (
ASX:ABZ) has successfully completed its current exploratory drilling program at Inverell-Pindaroi in northern NSW.
The drill rig and crews have now commenced drilling Pechey and Geham prospects at Hampton, southern Queensland.
The program objective is to first identify the bauxite layer and better define its boundary.
Then, additional holes are drilled to test for the consistency of the bauxite. Results to date have been satisfactory, in line with expectations and in some places, better than expected.
INVERELL EL 6997
20km NW of Inverell NSW
Total drilling completed at Inverell in 2009 and 2010 is 280 drillholes totalling 3,400 metres averaging 4.8 to 5.4 metres of bauxite thickness.
The thickest bauxite intercept in the 2010 drill campaign has been 9.4 metres in the centre of the tenement - a similar result to the 9.5 metres maximum thickness encountered in the 2009 drill campaign at the southern end of the tenement.
Resource estimation work will commence during July once all assay and analytical results are received from the laboratory.
PINDAROI EL 7268
7km NE of Inverell EL 6997 NSW
The thickest bauxite intercept of 12 metres is quite remarkable and the fact that this is the same maximum thickness that was estimated from detailed mapping is considered encouraging.
Pindaroi has potential for large tonnage deposits.
HAMPTON EPM 17790
20km N of Toowoomba QLD
Bauxite up to 13 metres has been intersected at the Pechey Deposit. The deposit has two layers in places - still awaiting laboratory results for definitive interpretations.
COMMENT ON DRILLING PROGRESS
The drilling program is proceeding faster than schedule and the target of 1,000 holes in 2010 across most of the company's tenements should be achieved. Landholder support has been positive in all areas.
Results at Inverell are confirming that the main deposits have the shape and high degree of consistency that was originally interpreted for these deposits. Barring any unexpected surprises in the assay results, which are still awaited, the Inverell deposits are relatively consistent and very extensive.
A major resource drilling program is considered the likely next step for this substantial bauxite resource area.
Results at Pindaroi have exceeded expectations - 12 metres of bauxite is uncommonly thick and the resource tonnage potential is high. However, because this was the first drill testing of Pindaroi, it is too early to predict the future developments at Pindaroi.
Early results at Pechey in the Hampton EPM in southern Queensland have been exciting, albeit geologically more complex than either Inverell or Pindaroi (as expected). Bauxite intercepts of 13 metres are most encouraging but because assays are still awaited, the relative ranking of Pechey deposit compared to other bauxite deposits is yet to be determined. Geham is also an interesting deposit located within 5 km of Pechey and together, these deposits may contain a large tonnage of bauxite.
For the complete Australian Bauxite Limited announcement including figures, please refer to the following link:
http://www.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/62951-ASX-ABZ-593761.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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