BAUXITE - Grade improvement at Inverell resource

Australian Bauxite Limited (ABx) has increased the grade of its 38 million tonne Inverell resource after rigorous evaluation.

The company discovered a layer of good quality bauxite in 2009 at the northern New South Wales project and that bauxite has been the focus of further investigation. ABx conducted evaluation and drilled 37 new holes into the concealed bauxite to confirm the ore is consistent with the previous inferred resource estimates at those zones.

A rigorous selection of the bauxite intercept thicknesses and grades has been applied so that the grades of the resources better reflect the nature of the deposit, with alumina to silica ratios increasing from 6.7 to 8.5 and alumina increasing from 37.8% to 40.2%.

The Inverell deposit lies near the top of a plateau north of the town of Inverell, which has been widely cleared for farming and grazing. The bauxite in the resource area is consistently medium quality, low silica gibbsite bauxite suitable for low temperature bauxite-alumina refineries.

New areas of bauxite in the Inverell-Stannifer-Guyra area of northern New South Wales have been discovered in recent months and are being explored to expand resource extent and identify resource drilling targets.

The Inverell bauxite project is about 430km from Newcastle port and is not serviced by a heavy duty rail line. Therefore, ABx says this project is not considered a candidate for early development for direct export. However ABx says Inverell may form part of a sizeable bauxite province in the region that has potential to justify a bauxite processing facility, possibly even a new bauxite-alumina refinery.

New tenements containing high-grade bauxite outcrops have been secured in the region, especially at Stannifer, halfway between Inverell and Guyra.

www.australianbauxite.com.au