First Bauxite releases detailed analysis on multiple projects

The First Bauxite Corporation has completed the strategic review of two of its projects, the Bankable Feasibility Study Update (BFSU Project) which was filed on 21 November 2011 and the planned pre-feasibility study (PFS Project) which was first introduced on 14th Feb, 2013. The first project was to product sintered bauxite in Guyana for the refractory market, the second was for the ceramic proppant market.

In case of the BFSU project, a thorough analysis was conducted regarding the energy, market, technology, and resource risks. At the end of the review, the company believed that the risks have had a significant impact on the inability to secure the required level of finance needed for construction commissioning and operation of the BFSU project.

The review of the planned PFS project revealed that the high capital cost, high energy intensity and low plant capacity and since the risks observed in the BFSU project also remained, the board decided that the project was not viable in its current form and a completion of the pre-feasibility study was not justified and the project was dropped.

A number of alternate project concepts have been identified and reviewed considering that the BFSU project and the Planned PFS project have so many risks involved. An optimized project concept has been defined that will allow a greater level of flexibility thus termed as the Flexible Project. A detailed analysis conducted on this project has led to the engagement of Ausenco Engineering Canada Inc to complete a NI 43-101 compliant Feasibility Study (FS) on the Flexible Project by the end of June 2015. There are also ongoing discussions with the company’s largest shareholder, Resource Capital Funds, to finance the completion of the Flexible Project.