Abx Large Sale Concluded and New Opportunities Initiated
Sydney, June 30, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australian Bauxite Limited (
ASX:ABX) (ABx) is selling bauxite into fertiliser and cement markets at prices higher than the currently over-supplied metallurgical bauxite market. ABx's maiden shipment of 5,557 tonnes occurred on 28 April and a second sale of 5,000 tonnes was announced on 31 May.
ABx is pleased to announce it has concluded a large new sale contract for 35,000 tonnes of bauxite from ABx's Bald Hill mine - the first new bauxite project in Australia for more than 35 years. This sale replaces the second 5,000 tonne sale and payment is to be within 7 days. Shipping dates are to be organised to suit the customer's requirements in due course.
The sale price is satisfactorily profitable and commercial-in-confidence.
Two other small-tonnage sales of fertiliser grade bauxite have been concluded for August and December at similarly profitable prices.
New Customers In Discussions & Signs of Growth ABx is preparing two joint offers with its more experienced marketing partner, RawMin to jointly ship large tonnages into both the Middle East and European markets for up to five years.
ABx has also been approached for samples of cement-grade bauxite from several international customers.
ABx's CEO Ian Levy commented; "This is a great way to end the financial year and we have more positive developments emerging over the coming few months.
"Cement-grade and fertiliser-grade demand is strong and growing but we endured 8 months of negative trends in the aluminium-related metallurgical bauxite markets until recently. Over the last 5 weeks, several customers have approached ABx seeking metallurgical-grade bauxite in significant tonnages.
"In response to these early signs of a strengthening market, ABx has increased its testing of the TasTech technology that separates ABx's bauxite into 3 products: metallurgical-grade, cement-grade and fertiliser-grade bauxite. Once the robustness of TasTech technology is confirmed, ABx will commence large-scale field trials."
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http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/1Y3ZIJ25
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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