Bald Hill ships first cement-grade bauxite

ASX-listed Australian Bauxite (ABx) has shipped its first 5,557 tons of cement-grade bauxite from the Bald Hill mine, in Tasmania.

The company told shareholders on Thursday that the customer sought a second, larger shipment of between 30 000 t and 40 000 t once the large stockpile warehouse at the receiving port was approved and ready to receive bauxite.

The next shipment would occur within the next two months, said ABx, adding that the sales price of the cement-grade bauxite was profitable, but remained commercial-in-confidence.

ABx CEO Leon Hawker pointed out that, during 2014, the company had developed three marketing plans for the bauxite produced at the Bald Hill mine, with the first two plans focused on selling metallurgical bauxite to alumina refineries in China and India.

However, in November last year, both markets were closed to new entrants, prompting ABx to rely on its third marketing plan, which included selling bauxite into the cement and fertiliser industries.

“This involved careful testwork to achieve the special standards required by each customer and ABx’s bauxite proved itself to be suitable for a wide range of applications. We will further enhance the product qualities via our TasTech technology,” said Hawker.

Due to the deterioration in the metallurgical bauxite market, ABx earlier this year suspended bauxite production and haulage at the Bald Hill mine, with Hawker saying on Thursday that operations would only resume once additional contracts were finalised.

It was expected that the mine could restart production in two weeks, once the additional contracts were finalised.