2018 Annual Report
Sydney, Mar 29, 2019 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australian Bauxite Ltd (
ASX:ABX) provides the Company's 2018 Annual Report for the 12 month period to 31 December 2018.
Australian Bauxite Limited (ABx or the Company) is an emerging bauxite producer and exploration company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on 24 December 2009. Its ASX code is ABX.
ABx currently holds 14 bauxite tenements in New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania covering 834 km2 and operates its first mining operations at the Bald Hill bauxite project in Tasmania - see Figures 1 & 2. ABx's bauxite is gibbsite trihydrate (THA) bauxite that can be processed into alumina at low temperature- the type in short supply globally. It is a bauxite free of quartz, alkalis and base metals, making it also ideal for cement-making. Some zones of grey-white bauxite may be suitable for manufacture of refractories, abrasives and chemicals.
ABx's bauxite can be beneficiated into high value products via two new technologies, namely TasTech physical upgrading and ALCORE chemical upgrading. ALCORE Limited (ALCORE) is a wholly owned subsidiary operating a Research Centre on the Central Coast of New South Wales where it is currently undertaking the production of test samples. A patent application has been lodged for its technology to refine raw bauxite to produce Aluminium Fluoride (AlF3) and other valuable co-products including the Corethane gas substitute. AlF3 is a key electrolyte ingredient in aluminium production by aluminium smelters. Global demand for AlF3 is increasing strongly as aluminium production increases and will grow rapidly when use of AlF3 in lithium batteries increases.
ALCORE completed construction of its sophisticated laboratory in December within budget and has now achieved full structural completion. Funding for the ALCORE Stage 1 laboratory was provided by seed capital investors.
ABx has declared JORC compliant Mineral Resources totalling 137.1 million tonnes (inferred 64.4 Mt, indicated 72.7 Mt - see resource statement in ASX release 31 January 2019) in New South Wales projects, Binjour in central Queensland inland from Bundaberg Port and in northern Tasmania extending from Campbell Town to Bell Bay in northern Tasmania - see Figure 1. All tenements are 100% owned, unencumbered and free of third party royalties.
During 2018, ABx made sales of fertiliser grade bauxite and is also well-advanced in producing the next 30,000 tonne cement-grade bauxite sale from the Bald Hill operations in Tasmania, which commenced in December 2014 as Australia's first new bauxite production project for more than 35 years. Full-scale production at Bald Hill has gone well, achieving higher tonnages and grades than budget well within the 1 May shipping deadline.
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http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/H2W4VM79
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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