Bauxite venture case presented to Bridgetown-Greenbushes council

Bauxite Resources Ltd (BRL) chief executive Scott Donaldson presented his company's case for a local bauxite venture to the Bridgetown-Greenbushes Shire Council meeting last week.

Mr Donaldson told council he was disturbed by scare-mongering and wished to debunk myths.

He said his company only has a minority stake in the Bauxite Alumina Joint Venture, which is working toward setting up a refinery in WA - but he said it was premature to talk about the location of the refinery.

The Joint Venture group hopes to secure an annual target of 90 million tonnes of bauxite and only when this was the case would a refinery be considered.

"Until there are resources (bauxite) there will be no refinery," Mr Donaldson said.

Manjimup Shire president Wade De Campo said he hoped a bauxite refinery would be located in the Warren district.

Mr Donaldson said BRL would pursue approvals to mine state forest which was already used for logging under the government's Forest Management Plan (FMP), but conservation parcels of state forest would not be pursued for bauxite mining leases.

Mr Donaldson made no reference to the recent decision by the mining warden to recommend to the Mining Minister that BRL be refused exploration licences in the Warren Blackwood, nor did any councillor put any questions to Mr Donaldson's about the mining warden's recommendations.