Australian Bauxite Limited upgrades its Binjour Bauxite Resources

Emerging bauxite exploration and development company, Australian Bauxite Limited has bauxite tenements totalling more than 8,700 km2 covering the core of the Eastern Australian Bauxite Province . ABx considers its Binjour Project located 100kms from Bundaberg Port to be a state significant discovery of a major bauxite province which may well become the company's flagship project over the next 5 years.

A 3 to 15 metres thick layer of bauxite extends over the entire 44 square kilometre Binjour Plateau (see Figure 2 in link). Parts of this bauxite layer contain silica gel veinlets which in its current form, makes the bauxite grades too silica-rich. However, this material has been shown to be easily removed by washing and the recovered bauxite then meets DSO grade. The large potential of Binjour is just being revealed, however, this resource estimate only includes bauxite that meets DSO grade (see Table 1 in link).

The district's deposits contain thick zones of premium grade gibbsite-rich bauxite often referred to as "Brown Sugar" bauxite, with good potential for more discoveries. ABx has recently applied for several exploration permits covering the extensions of Binjour Plateau geology.

"Brown Sugar" bauxite is ideal feedstock for sweetener circuits in alumina refineries and will demand a premium price.

Resource Estimation and Deposit Geometry

The Binjour bauxite unit is a distinct and predictable horizontal layer averaging approximately 6 metres in thickness, lying beneath a red mud unit averaging 8 metres in thickness that is free diggable and similar in density to the bauxite layer. The bauxite is high in Al2O3 but varies in SiO2 grade, mainly due to the presence of soft silica r bauxite layer is currently 44 square kilometres which is 15 times larger than the 3.0 square kilometres of DSO bauxite resources estimated herein to contain 24.5 million tonnes.

Metallurgical Results Encouraging: Silica Gel Removal to Expand DSO Bauxite Resources

In the last 6 months, preliminary metallurgical tests have been conducted by a clay processing engineer who found that the silica gel substance was easily removed by a simple, low-cost washing procedure that may become a proprietary technology. The gel is soft and only loosely adhered to the bauxite, which allows for easy liberation when washed, leaving a recovered bauxite that is low-silica, high alumina DSO Grade Bauxite.

Work is continuing to develop a standard sample preparation protocol for future analysis of the silica gel-bearing bauxite samples by commercial laboratories so that large tracts of the bauxite layer can be included in future resource estimations.