Bauxite Sales and New Opportunities Continue Grow
Sydney, Sep 26, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australian Bauxite Ltd (
ASX:ABX) (ABx) is selling bauxite into fertiliser and cement markets at prices higher than the currently over-supplied metallurgical bauxite market. ABx's sales of Cement-Grade bauxite in 2016 to date total 42,005 tonnes.
Fertiliser-grade bauxite sales are naturally seasonal and weather-sensitive but ABx has secured a sale of some 3,585 tonnes to date, with a further 1,500 tonnes to be dispatched to the customer before year-end.
ABx has 90 tonnes of cement-grade bauxite undergoing testwork by a new customer with a planned large shipment of cement-grade bauxite scheduled for year-end. The mine product stockpile is currently 18,400 tonnes and growing daily for this cargo.
The sale prices achieved for all sales is satisfactorily profitable and commercial-in-confidence.
New Customers In Discussions & Signs of Growth
ABx is progressing with two joint offers with its more experienced marketing partner, RawMin to jointly ship large tonnages into both the Middle East and European markets for up to five years.
ABx has also been approached by several large international cement manufacturers seeking bauxite with grades tailored to their specific needs.
ABx's CEO Ian Levy commented; "As the Chinese market for metallurgical bauxite remains subdued, the cement and fertiliser markets are growing strongly.
"ABx's recent announcement of a 5-fold increase in the resource tonnages at its Fingal Rail Project to 6.3 million tonnes shows that ABx can enter into long-term contracts with major cement-grade customers.
"In recent months, several customers have approached ABx seeking metallurgical-grade bauxite for supply to several countries and ABx will work with Rawmin on these opportunities.
In response to these early signs of a strengthening market, ABx has increased its testing of the TasTech technology that separates ABx's bauxite into its 3 product-components: metallurgical-grade, cement-grade and fertiliser-grade bauxite. Once the robustness of TasTech technology is confirmed, ABx will commence large-scale field trials."
To view tables and figures, please visit:
http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/KM55Q0U8
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.
| ||
|
