Metro Mining shipped its first batch of 62,000 tonnes of bauxite to China’s Xinfa Group

Metro Mining Ltd has shipped its first batch of 62,000 tonnes of bauxite to China from its flagship Bauxite Hills Mine in northern Queensland, Australia. This was purchased by the Xinfa Group, one of China’s largest integrated aluminium companies with refining and smelting facilities in Shandong, Shanxi, Guangxi and Xinjiang provinces.

Metro Mining has signed a four-year binding off take agreement with Xinfa with a commitment to deliver one million tonnes in the first year followed by two million tonnes each for next three years. A second bulk carrier has arrived for the purpose.

Metro Mining Ltd started mining at its Bauxite Hills project in Far North Queensland after January 2018 with an annual mining target of two million tonnes of bauxite every year. The company expects to ramp it up to 6 million tonnes over the first four years.

Bauxite Hills has about 92.2 million tonnes of bauxite reserve and 144.8 million tonnes of total resource with an estimated 17-year mine life. This may be extended through the conversion of resources to reserves.

The project is forecast to generate underlying earnings of $2.5 billion for the company.

According to the MD and CEO Simon Finnis, Bauxite Hills would be a globally significant bauxite mining operation in the Weipa Bauxite Region supplying to the growing seaborne bauxite market.