Half Yearly Report
Sydney, Sep 13, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australian Bauxite Ltd (
ASX:ABX) provides the Company's Half Yearly Report.
Activities during the half-year
1. ALCORE bauxite refining technology development
2. Feasibility study of the Binjour Bauxite project inland from Bundaberg Port, central Queensland
3. Bauxite mining and processing operations in Tasmania, exporting via Bell Bay Port of Launceston
4. Assessment and development of the Penrose bauxite deposit, 90km inland from Port Kembla
ALCORE Bauxite Refining Technology
During the half-year, ABx incorporated ALCORE Limited as a wholly owned subsidiary to fund and manage the ALCORE Project, leading to the construction of an ALCORE Production Plant to produce Aluminium Fluoride (AlF3) and valuable co-products, using new technology (patent application. See Figure 1 in link below).
ALCORE technology is for refining raw bauxite, with a market price of US$50, into high-value products worth more than US$800 per tonne (see Figure 2 in link below), including:
a. Aluminium Fluoride (AlF3), an electrolyte for aluminium smelters & lithium ion batteries;
b. Silica fume for stronger concrete and production of low CO2 geopolymer cement;
c. Corethane, an ultra-pure hydrocarbon for generating electricity and heat when used as a substitute for gas or diesel fuels, increasing fuel security & reducing CO2 emissions;
d. Refractory-grade bauxite & hi-purity alumina (HPA) to make scratch-resistant sapphire glass
ABx has granted an unrestricted bauxite refining technology licence to ALCORE which ABx believes will be the first Australian supplier of AlF3 to the Australasian Aluminium Smelters and one other overseas market. ALCORE is engaged in ongoing cooperation with all relevant customers.
Operations on schedule: Stage 1 of the ALCORE Project commenced on 1 July 2018 at the ALCORE Research Centre at Berkley Vale, Central Coast NSW for the production of AlF3 test samples.
Funding is in place to complete Stage 1, scheduled to take 3 months from 1 July for final design, 1 month for final permitting, followed by 3 months construction and up to 5 months of production.
ALCORE's Master Agreement with a major engineering firm will ensure senior engineers for Stage 1 and the production plant. The engineers have studied this technology for two years and has presented plans to expedite production of the samples for customers.
Engineers on site. When the research centre was readied, senior chemical engineering staff went to site. The first tasks are to build a laboratory facility, verify the process, make AlF3 products and take engineering measurements to improve the design of the production plant.
Strategic plans: Once sufficient AlF3 samples are provided to customers and the requisite engineering factors for an AlF3 production plant are determined, the research centre will test the production of Corethane which will fuel electric generators and heaters for ALCORE's Production Plant. Corethane can power large gas turbine electrical generators and be a diesel substitute for fuel security purposes. Corethane has significant energy and industrial potential.
ALCORE technology is relatively low-risk because it operates at ambient temperatures & pressures.
ALCORE is holding ongoing discussions with governments, agencies and companies that have showed strong interest in both AIF3 and the main co-products, Corethane and silica fume.
To view the full report, please visit:
http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/N42U0K62
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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