2012 Goulburn Pre Feasibility Study Expanded
Sydney, May 30, 2012 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australian Bauxite Limited (
ASX:ABZ) commissioned Como Engineers Pty Ltd and other metallurgical and environmental engineering firms to prepare a Pre Feasibility Study (PFS) on the Goulburn Bauxite Project located near Goulburn New South Wales (Figure 1).
Marubeni Corporation (Marubeni) has participated in the PFS and has contributed 35% of the cost.
The PFS was initially focused on a conservative, lowest-capital cost case of 1.2 million tonnes per annum (1.2Mtpa) of bauxite delivered to ship at Port Kembla. A second study was also based on a 1.2Mtpa scale but involved higher rail capital costs so as to reduce the operating costs.
Both of the 1.2Mtpa cases yielded positive results with high internal rates of return, thus confirming the feasibility to commence the project at the rate of 1.2Mtpa, modelled on current road-base quarry operations in the area.
Modelling is being expanded to provide a ramp-up option to 2.5 to 3Mtpa bauxite out of Port Kembla.
Australian Bauxite's CEO, Ian Levy said; "Continued drilling over the Goulburn Bauxite Project in the March quarter intercepted high grade bauxite of extraordinary thicknesses in excess of 30 metres (ASX, 9 February 2012) which is probably the thickest bauxite ever discovered in Australia. This significant discovery substantially increased the scope of the Project and warranted extending the modelling to provide for significant ramp-up possibilities.
"We are in discussions with a number of potential customers and are confident that the demand and price for our low silica, gibbsite DSO bauxite will be mutually beneficial to our customers and to Australian Bauxite Limited. The bauxite market remains the strongest of all mineral commodity markets with China importing all-time record tonnages. Furthermore, the Indonesia government is clamping-down on bauxite export operations and has increased export taxes on bauxite by 20%. This is an opportunity for Australia to expand its exports of quality-enhanced bauxite."
Reporting on the conclusions of the PFS will now be made on completion of the ramp-up option and once commercial negotiations with potential customers have been well advanced.
At the completion of the pre-feasibility study Marubeni can elect to acquire a 35% joint venture interest in the Goulburn-Taralga bauxite project.
To view the complete Australian Bauxite announcement including Figure 1, please click the following link below:
http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-ABZ-680536.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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