Australian Bauxite identifies refractory-grade bauxite layers near Port Kembla

Australian Bauxite Ltd (ABx) announced today that the company has identified high quality refractory-grade bauxite in Penrose state pine forest, en route to Port Kembla in New South Wales, Australia. There is a worldwide market for refractory-grade bauxite that is fairly a high-priced - ABx expects to leverage upon this market to grow its business in the long term.

Commenting on the finding, ABx CEO, Ian Levy said; "In late 2015, the company was granted its long-awaited tenement over Penrose state pine forest which is close to transport infrastructure and suited to quarrying during forest harvest cycles. The discovery of a thick layer of high-value refractory-grade bauxite is a positive development. Exploration of extensions to this deposit will continue simultaneously with market testing of this special bauxite product which is in critical short supply in Australia and globally. This will assist the marketing of ABx's current cement-grade and fertiliser-grade bauxite products from its first mine at Bald Hill in Tasmania."

Refractory-grade bauxite finds application in heat containment and abrasives production and is sold at prices 5-times higher than the price of metallurgical grade bauxite which is used for extracting aluminium through refining and smelting.

Australian Bauxite currently sells its mineral produce to the fertilizer and cement markets at prices higher than that could be achieved in the already over-supplied bauxite market in the aluminium industry. The recent exploration of a rich layer of refractory-grade bauxite throws open new opportunities for the mineral development firm to add further strength and value to its existing bauxite product portfolio.

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Surface sampling by Australian Bauxite in Penrose state pine forest under Exploration Licence EL 8370 revealed that the bauxite layer has high iron content. However, surface exposures did not give any indication of the presence of any deeper layers of the ore.