Quarterly Report and Activities Statement
Sydney, Jan 31, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australian Bauxite Ltd (
ASX:ABX) provides the Company's Quarterly Report and Activities Statement for the period ending 31 December, 2017.
Corporate
- Current group available cash at the end of the quarter was $1.94 million.
- ABx has lines of credit for working capital, if required, and has no current plans for capital raisings.
Sales & Operations
- ABx loaded and shipped a combined 35,000 tonnes of cement-grade bauxite from the Bell Bay export port in Tasmania, 3 weeks ahead of schedule in October 2017.
- Fertiliser grade bauxite sales are growing steadily to satisfy growing agricultural demand at modest but valuable prices in Australian dollars. The outlook for regular fertiliser sales during 2018 is positive.
- Once sales despatches were completed, operations at the Bald Hill bauxite project at Campbell Town in northern Tasmania finalised the rehabilitation of pit areas MB6 and MB5. The rehabilitated land has been returned to sheep grazing in accordance with company policy to leave the land better than we found it.
Bauxite Refining Technology
- This technology is for producing Aluminium Fluoride (AlF3) used as an electrolyte for aluminium smelters & lithium ion batteries and a co-production of Corethane which is an ultra-pure hydrocarbon that can substitute for natural gas for electricity and heating of the ALCORE plant and for sale into the national grids if needed. Corethane also has markets for metallurgical use and brickmaking.
- ABx executed a Heads of Agreement with technology provider, Refined Ore Industries Limited (ROIL) for the global exclusive rights to apply the technology to beneficiate and refine bauxite into high-value products. ABx worked with ROIL to complete the technology development and to make the patent application in June 2017.
- ALCORE's business plan is to develop the first of several ALCORE bauxite refinery projects in Tasmania and/or northern QLD. ABx's uniquely clean bauxite is ideal for ALCORE because it is totally free of deleterious elements.
- ABx has commissioned Turnkey Innovative Engineering Pty Ltd (Turnkey) to help in the engineering, design and costing of the 1st stage of the ALCORE project to generate bulk samples of products for market-testing by ALCORE's prospective customers. ABx plans to report to shareholders about Stage 1 in March 2018.
- Financing plans are scheduled to be finalised in mid-2018. ABx has been approached by a party involved in the Aluminium Fluoride industry to discuss Stage 1 financing and, if successful, other participants in the Aluminium Fluoride industry have expressed interest in providing some finance for the construction of the 50,000 tonne per year production plant, subject to offtake agreements. Demand for AlF3 is clearly strengthening.
- A third party is also seeking access to the Stage 1 Plant for the purification of graphite on terms that may supply one third of the cost of the Stage 1 Plant during its 12 to 18 months of testwork.
- Discussions are continuing with Federal and State Government ministries and with a government authority and these discussions will continue in 2018.
- ABx has been approached by two major companies seeking negotiations for access of two of the co-products from the ALCORE production plant, namely Corethane and Silica Fume.
Review of Binjour project
- ABx and its Indian marketing partner, Rawmin Mining and Industries (Rawmin) have applied for a Regional Jobs and Investment grant for the commencement of the Binjour Bauxite project in the Wide Bay Burnett region of central Queensland, shipping from the Port of Bundaberg.
- Resource modelling is in progress. Binjour Bauxite project resources are currently estimated as totalling 28 million tonnes from Binjour exploration licences (See Resource Statement) and granted mining lease at Toondoon south of Mundubbera. (See Resource Statement)
- Bulk samples were collected ahead of schedule in late December to expedite negotiations with customers for the execution of offtake sale-purchase agreements for the project.
TasTech Process Technology
- ABx completed a bulk-scale mining and processing project to confirm the effectiveness of ABx's TasTech technology at Fingal Rail project area, using freshly quarried Fingal Rail ore and stockpiled Bald Hill ore.
Bauxite Refining Technology
ALCORE's bauxite refining technology produces Aluminium Fluoride (AIF3) and other co-products including the gas-substitute Corethane to power the plant and Silica Fume for the cement industry which ABx already services with its supplies of cement-grade bauxite.
ABx has been in negotiations with potential customers about technical specifications for its AIF3 product and it is considered likely that there is sufficient demand for a 50,000 tonnes per year AIF3 production plant.
ABx will control all marketing of ALCORE products and is pleased to supply customers in the bauxite-aluminaaluminium industry to become more cost-efficient at the smelting stage, not just at the bauxite stage. Currently all AIF3 used in Australia is imported at prices higher than those paid by overseas competitors.
Summary
ALCORE's bauxite refining converts Tasmanian bauxite valued at approximately US$50 per tonne into a suite of products worth in excess of US$800 per tonne of bauxite representing a more than 10-times increase in the value per tonne of bauxite.
Competitive Advantage
ALCORE also exploits ABx's main strength - its uniquely clean chemical composition, totally free of any deleterious elements that would inhibit ALCORE's bauxite refining efficiency. Few, if any other Australian bauxite is so suited to ALCORE's bauxite refining technology.
Timetable
ABx has published a timeline for this project as follows:
1. Complete assessment and costing of the Stage 1 "EV Plant" stage: 28 February 2018
2. ABx Board to review and agree to proceed or otherwise: Early March 2018
3. ABx to announce its development plans, costs and financing: Mid March 2018
Binjour Project Commencing Financial Studies
This project area is located inland from Bundaberg, central Queensland, comprising the main project area located at Binjour, 115kms SW of Bundaberg between Gayndah and Mundubbera with a granted Mining Lease at Toondoon 25kms south of Mundubbera and an exploration project at Brovinia further to the south.
ABx and its Indian marketing partner, Rawmin Mining and Industries (Rawmin) have applied for a Regional Jobs and Investment grant for the commencement of the Binjour Bauxite project in the Wide Bay Burnett region of central Queensland, shipping from the Port of Bundaberg.
Resource modelling is in progress. Binjour Bauxite project resources are currently estimated as totalling 28 million tonnes from Binjour exploration licences (See Resource Statement) and granted mining lease at Toondoon (See Resource Statement) south of Mundubbera. (See Resource Statement)
Bulk samples were collected ahead of schedule in late December to expedite negotiations with customers for the execution of offtake sale-purchase agreements for the project. Discussions with prospective customers have commenced.
Once results from the resource re-estimation and the analyses of the bulk samples by multiple laboratories is completed, ABx will make a public statement of those results in the form of an ASX release.
To view the release with tables and figures, please visit:
http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/4DV6T63Z
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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