High Grade Refractory Bauxite Identified
Sydney, Feb 27, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australian Bauxite Ltd (
ASX:ABX) is pleased to provide an exploration update. High quality refractory-grade bauxite discovered inland of Port Kembla ABx has discovered a layer of refractory-grade bauxite in Penrose state pine forest, adjacent to the Hume Highway, 90 kilometres from Port Kembla.
Refractory-grade bauxite is used for heat containment and abrasives and can sell for up to 5 times the current price of metallurgical grade bauxite. ABx currently sells bauxite into cement and fertiliser markets at prices higher than could be achieved in the over-supplied metallurgical bauxite market. The recent discovery of a layer of high-quality refractory-grade bauxite opens up the possibly of a new, high-priced market for ABx's bauxite products to add to its existing suite of bauxite products.
ABx CEO, Ian Levy said; "In late 2015, the company was granted its long-awaited tenement over Penrose state pine forest which is close to transport infrastructure and suited to quarrying during forest harvest cycles. The discovery of a thick layer of high-value refractory-grade bauxite is a positive development. Exploration of extensions to this deposit will continue simultaneously with market testing of this special bauxite product which is in critical short supply in Australia and globally. This will assist the marketing of ABx's current cement-grade and fertiliser-grade bauxite products from its first mine at Bald Hill in Tasmania."
Surface sampling in Penrose state pine forest
Surface exposures of bauxite in the Penrose Forest Exploration Licence EL 8370 tends to be iron-rich and gives no indication of the presence of deeper layers of higher grade and refractory grade bauxite.
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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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