Upgrade of Darling Range Bauxite Resource, Felicitas Project
Perth, May 2, 2013 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Bauxite Resources Limited (
ASX:BAU) is pleased to announce a resource upgrade for the Felicitas bauxite deposit in the Darling Range Western Australia. The resource is situated on a small number of large private landholdings located approximately 60km north east of Perth, and 10km from the town of Wundowie. The resource is less than 5 km from existing rail infrastructure providing a direct link to Fremantle/Kwinana Port being approximately 120 km away.
The Felicitas resource is contained within the Company's Bauxite Alumina Joint Ventures ("BAJV") joint venture with Yankuang Resources Ltd ("Yankuang"). BAJV is managing the project.
Table 1: Total Felicitas Deposit Resource Classification
--------------------------------------------------------------------------JORC Quantity Al2O3 Al2O3 % SiO2 % Al2O3 (avail) classification (Mt) (total)* % (available)* (reactive)* SiO2 (react) --------------------------------------------------------------------------Measured 33.1 39.2 30.5 1.3 23.5Indicated 49.1 40.2 30.4 2.0 15.2Inferred 45.3 39.2 29.6 2.6 11.4--------------------------------------------------------------------------Total 127.5 39.6 30.1 2.0 15.1--------------------------------------------------------------------------*Note - All grades are unbeneficiated
The BAJV has now identified in excess of 90 million tonnes of refinery grade bauxite at Felicitas, a critical hurdle for the joint venture to develop an alumina refinery. Under the joint venture agreement, BAJV is obligated to complete a bankable feasibility study into the viability of building a refinery in Western Australia capable of producing 1.1 million tonnes per annum of alumina. The costs of the bankable feasibility will be borne 90% by Yankuang and 10% BRL.
Resource Location & Logistics
The Felicitas deposit extends across 3,300Ha (33km2) of large private landholdings, 10km north of Wundowie and 60km north northeast of Perth. The deposit is situated on a small number of large private landholdings readily accessible by sealed road that have been cleared for farming and grazing. These are located approximately 5km from existing rail infrastructure and approximately 120km by rail to Kwinana port. The area is bounded to the west by state forest, to the north and east by existing quarry operations, and to the south by farmland.
Bauxite Resource Details
The previous Felicitas bauxite resource stood at 73.3Mt, as announced in June 2012. The resource upgrade has resulted from an increase in specific gravity (SG) utilised for modelling, and from 729 step out drill holes, completed on a nominal 80m x 80m grid pattern. The SG was determined on drill core collected from drilling completed at Felicitas during March and April 2013. An SG of 2.17 was determined at Nagrom laboratory Perth, based on the lower quartile value taken from the results of 89 samples from across the modelled bauxite zone. The previously used SG of 1.6 was based on historical measurements from largely unconsolidated material, and as such, under called resource tonnes in the earlier resource estimate.
The Felicitas deposit comprises a bauxite horizon up to 16m thickness that is typically covered by 0.5m to 2m of loose overburden. The resource estimate, completed by RungePincockMinarco (RPM), was based on 3,350 vertical holes drilled for 13,975 metres on a nominal 80 x 80m drill pattern. The available alumina and reactive silica results quoted are unbeneficiated based on low temperature caustic digest analysis (143°C), to simulate extraction by the Bayer process.
The extent of the bauxite mineralisation has not been fully determined and additional drilling is underway. An additional resource upgrade is expected during the current quarter.
The Felicitas resource upgrade adds to the global resource base that BRL and its joint venture partners have defined within the Darling Range of Western Australia.
To view tables and resource figures, please visit:
http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-BAU-634395.pdf
About Bauxite Resources Limited
Bauxite Resources (ASX:BAU) (OTCMKTS:BXRDF) was established with a substantial tenement holding in Western Australia to develop new bauxite supply for the global alumina/aluminium industry. The Company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in October 2007.
The Darling Range in the south-west of Western Australia (WA) is the world's largest bauxite mining and alumina refining region producing around 20% of the world's alumina. This area has mined bauxite and refined alumina since the 1960s. These industries are leaders in sustainable resource development and represent the fifth largest sector of WA's resource industry.
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