ABx announces Annual Report 2016: Sales of non-metallurgical grade bauxite rises

Australian Bauxite Ltd announced today publication of its Annual Report for the year ended 31 December, 2016. During 2016, ABx sold 45,590 tonnes of bauxite comprising 42,000 tonnes of cement-grade bauxite and over 3,590 tonnes of fertiliser grade bauxite. The company has over 122,500 tonnes of bauxite product stockpiles at the Tasmanian mine sites that would suffice for 3 ship loads, and an additional 36,700 tonnes of broken unscreened bauxite ore stocks.

ABx completed its initial sale and shipment of cement-grade bauxite between April 2016 and May 2016 followed by a larger sale in August 2016. These sales resulted from large bauxite stockpiles and a temporary closure in production as glut rose in the metallurgical market due to cheap Malaysian bauxite resulting in falling prices.

ABx currently holds 22 bauxite tenements in New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania and operates its first quarrying operations at the Bald Hill bauxite project in Tasmania. During the year, the bauxite miner made its maiden shipment of product sourced from the Bald Hill operations, which commenced in December 2014.

Commenting on the progress, Chairman of Australian Bauxite Paul Lennon said, "Over the past 12 months ABx has extended its capacity to supply cement-grade bauxite into Australasian and international markets whilst remaining ready to sell metallurgical grade bauxite when the seaborne bauxite market returns to balance and prices improve."

The company's sales of cement and fertiliser grade bauxite in 2016 were at higher prices than the metallurgical market price.

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ABx remains optimistic about the long-term outlook of global bauxite market. Lennon said, "Gibbsite-trihydrate bauxite demand is most critical. Gibbsite-rich trihydrate (THA) bauxites like Indian, Malaysian, Gove, Guinea and ABx bauxite is in strongest demand because it can be processed into alumina (the feedstock for smelting of aluminium) at low temperatures"... "The long-term ABx strategy is to export low temperature, gibbsite trihydrate metallurgical bauxite with low SiO2 and excellent processing qualities from its Tasmanian mines."

ABx is accelerating the development of TasTech technology which allows it to separate Tasmanian bauxite into three product-types all year round, Lennon updated.  This would allow simultaneous production of high grade metallurgical-grade gibbsite bauxite, cement-grade bauxite, and fertiliser-grade and other bauxite-types.