Page 13 - Bauxite Resources Annual Report 2013

Company Background
Bauxite Resources Limited (“BRL”) is a Western Australian
listed company focussing on the acquisition, exploration and
development of bauxite mineral deposits in Western Australia.
The Company has a beneficial interest in 97 exploration
licences covering 17,710km2 (51 tenements granted covering
9,355km2) centred around the highly-prospective Darling
Range in south west Western Australia (the largest bauxite
and alumina producing region in the world). This substantial
land holding is supported through exploration by BRL and also
through the Company’s established joint ventures (JV) with
Yankuang Resources Pty Limited (Yankuang) and HD Mining
& Investment Pty Limited (HDM). The JVs allow BRL to share
exploration expenditure and development costs.
BRL’s tenements in the Darling Range have significant potential
to make BRL a substantial bauxite player in Australia. With
global resources currently of 256.4Mt in this region this is
the largest independent resource base of bauxite outside the
major bauxite/alumina producers in Australia.
This current resource is of similar quality to the bauxite
currently used in a number of Western Australian refineries
who are some of the lowest cost producers in the world.
A fundamental reason for the efficiency of Darling Range
bauxite is due to its gibbsitic nature that requires low
temperatures and pressure for alumina refining, thereby
reducing refining costs. Another attractive element of the
Company’s resources is the low level of silica, especially
reactive silica (a key determinant of caustic efficiency in
alumina refining).
BRL’s development strategy involves establishment of resources
which are suitable for supply into the bauxite export market as
well as supporting the local refining of bauxite.
In January 2011, BRL executed JV agreements with Yankuang
Resources Pty Ltd for the development of both bauxite mining
and alumina refining in Western Australia. To date the JV has
defined 188.2 million tonnes of bauxite of which 147.9Mt is
in the JV’s flagship Felicitas Deposit in the Northern Darling
Range Region. The current resource at Felicitas is now at a
scale to support the development of an alumina refinery in
Western Australia, which is contemplated in the Alumina
Refinery Joint Venture Agreement also signed in January 2011.
In 2010 the Company entered into a joint venture with HDM
a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Shandong Bureau No1
Institute for Prospecting of Geology & Minerals (Shandong) to
explore for bauxite. The JV allows for HDM to fund 100% of
all exploration and feasibility costs for HDM to earn 60% of
the bauxite rights upon a decision to mine. BRL announced
the 15Mt Ceres bauxite resource in July 2012, part of the
Company’s emerging Williams area and contained within the
HDM joint venture in the eastern Darling Range region. The
joint venture has approved further exploration drilling in the
region over this years summer drilling season.
BRL retains bauxite rights to a
large holding of highly prospective
tenements in a world class bauxite
province and has the largest
independent resource base of
bauxite in Australia outside the
major bauxite/alumina producers.
Annual Report 2013 Bauxite Resources 11