Australian Bauxite Limited (ASX:ABZ) 2011 Bauxite Drilling Program Underway Full Steam Ahead
Sydney, Jan 18, 2011 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Emerging bauxite exploration and development company, Australian Bauxite Limited (
ASX:ABZ) (ABx) has commenced an aggressive 2011 drilling campaign on schedule today in good weather at its fast developing bauxite project at Taralga, near Goulburn, southern NSW. The 2010 drilling campaign ended in Queensland and Tasmania in mid December 2010 and all drilling rigs were sent to Adelaide for full servicing in readiness for the start of the 2011 drilling program. All rigs are operational.
There has been no disruption to ALS Laboratories which analyses the company's bauxite results and results continue to be produced in a timely manner. Results are pending from the drilling done at Binjour and Tasmania in the days before drilling ceased in mid December 2010. These will be reported as available.
Managing director and CEO, Ian Levy said: "Company staff have monitored the impacts of flooding in Queensland, northern NSW and Tasmania by remote sensing techniques, a few safe site inspections and by landholder communications. The bauxite deposits have remained dry but access in Queensland and Tasmania was temporarily restricted by highway closures due to flooding in low lying areas. The exploration team's decision, based on experience, to close-down the two rigs at Binjour in QLD and Tasmania in mid December and recommence drilling at Taralga in southern NSW in mid January has been vindicated. We don't want either rig delayed during our massive 2011 drilling campaign."
TARALGA EL 7269
40km N of Goulburn, southern NSW
The bauxite resources at Taralga doubled to 12 million tonnes following first-pass drilling as announced on 6 December 2010. More than half of the resources are easily mined Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) grade bauxite suitable for direct shipping to customers that require gibbsite-rich bauxite, which is the premium quality bauxite that is in highest demand globally.
A new style of gibbsite-rich bauxite has been discovered in the Southeast of the tenement and this will be further explored as a matter of priority.Drilling will be undertaken in accordance with a Review of Environmental Factors approved by the NSW Department of Industry and Investment. This approval enables resource definition drilling to be undertaken at Taralga without delay in 2011. Landholder relations are good and approvals to drill on schedule have been obtained.
For the complete Australian Bauxite Limited announcement including tables and figures, please view the following link:
http://www.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/65022-ASX-ABZ-620989.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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