Goulburn-Taralga Bauxite Resource up by 50% - 38 Million Ton
Sydney, May 31, 2012 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Emerging bauxite exploration and development company, Australian Bauxite Limited (
ASX:ABZ) has 40 bauxite tenements totalling more than 8,700 km2 covering the core of the Eastern Australian Bauxite Province. As announced on 30 May 2012, a discovery of extraordinarily thick bauxite at Mt Rae near Taralga, 40km north of Goulburn southern NSW in February-March 2012 has led to an expansion of the Pre Feasibility Study (PFS) for the Goulburn Bauxite Project and a resource upgrade has now also been undertaken as part of that expanded PFS.
ABx and Marubeni Corporation are conducting a AU$1.5 million pre feasibility study of the Goulburn Bauxite Project. This zone of thick bauxite increases the resource potential of the Taralga bauxite areas, near Goulburn NSW.
The district's deposits contain thick zones of premium grade bauxite, with good potential for more discoveries. All deposits are gibbsite-rich (trihydrate) bauxite, low in reactive silica and free of refractory mineral boehmite (monohydrate).
All horizons produce Direct Shipping or "DSO" bauxite.
Resource Estimation and Deposit Geometry
Areas of thick, good quality bauxite continue to be discovered across the Taralga - Mt Rae Areas and new bauxite target areas have been identified in new tenements that have been recently granted. Over the last 12 months, bauxite resources at Taralga have increased by 50% from 25 million tonnes to the current estimate of 37.9 million tonnes.
Metallurgical Results Encouraging: Main Production is DSO Bauxite Metallurgical tests on large samples have been conducted as part of the Pre Feasibility Study, with METS Engineers of Perth coordinating and summarising the testwork.
The Goulburn Bauxite Project deposits typically have an upper half that contains nodules or "pisoliths" of a black, glassy material which is an emery, comprising mainly fused alumina and trace iron oxides. Well-known bauxite mineralogist, Professor Eggleton of the Australian National University coined the term "PDM" for these black pisoliths which he found in bauxites from Weipa, Northern QLD. PDM stands for "poorly diffracting material" when subjected to X-ray diffraction.
Metallurgical tests on the PDM-bearing bauxite ("PDM-DSO Bx") from the Taralga area have been able to recover the PDM by gravity methods and the remaining bauxite is good-quality DSO bauxite, similar to the DSO bauxite that typically occurs in the lower half of the deposits. This means that overall, DSO Bauxite will represent approximately 80% to 85% of total tonnes produced from the Goulburn Bauxite Project. The recovered PDM emery material can be sold at good prices for industrial uses.
For the full tables, charts and data, please visit:
http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-ABZ-680690.pdf
About ABx Group Limited
ABx Group Limited (ABx) (ASX:ABX) is a uniquely positioned Australian company delivering materials for a cleaner future.
The three priority projects are:
- Heavy rare earths: Supplying light and heavy rare earths from Tasmania into Western supply chains
o Processing Options Analysis conducted in partnership with external experts
- Clean fluorine chemical production: Producing industrial chemicals from aluminium smelter by-product (ALCORE)
o Continuous pilot plant under construction in Bell Bay, Tasmania
- Near-term bauxite production: Mining bauxite resources for the aluminium, cement and fertiliser industries
o Agreements executed with Good Importing International for bauxite projects in Queensland and New South Wales, and $2.7 million initial payment has been received
o Approvals well advanced for DL130 bauxite project in northern Tasmania
ABx endorses best practices on agricultural land and strives to leave land and environment better than we find it. We only operate where welcomed.
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