Iron Mountain Mining has secured an option over two bauxite projects in the Solomon Islands - Nendo and Choiseul. The company has signed an option agreement to acquire a 50% stake in privately-held Au Capital Mining, which holds the two prospecting licences.

Iron Mountain will pay a non-refundable option fee of A$100,000 and if it elects to proceed with the transaction, will issue 20 million of its shares to Au Capital. A further 20 million fully paid shares would be issued to Au Capital on either the first commercial bauxite shipment or within 12 months of completion of the transaction.

Nendo is a granted prospecting licence on the island of Nendo in Temotu Province of the eastern Solomon Islands. Work by Australian exploration companies in the 1960s and the British and Solomon Island geological surveys up to and including the early 1980s identified bauxite deposits as residual laterite capping on uplifted sandstone reef platforms.

Choiseul is a granted prospecting licence on the island of Choiseul in the northern part of the Solomons. Bauxite has been documented and explored in this region since the 1960s and local geologists have noted bauxite deposits within the licence area.

Iron Mountain’s managing director Robert Sebek says the projects provide the company with the opportunity to explore for, and potentially develop a low-cost mining operation in a region beneficially situated close to end-users in Asia.

“Our dealings with the people of Nendo and officials in Honiara have been extremely encouraging and initial support for proposed exploration and subsequent mining operations in this region have been overwhelming.

"The Solomon Islands are ideally located close to Asian markets and potentially offer low-cost development of new discoveries,” he said.

The acquisition is subject to satisfactory due diligence and the completion of initial exploration activities to ensure Iron Mountain is satisfied that the Nendo project had the capacity to host a resource of at least eight-million tonnes of bauxite, at greater than 45% alumina and less than 5% total silica.

Iron Mountain Mining is an ASX-listed mineral explorer evaluating a number of highly prospective iron ore, gold, bauxite and nickel-copper sulphide projects, most of which are in Australia.