An Australian Bauxite subsidiary has lodged the mining lease application for the new Sunrise Bauxite Project to develop the Binjour deposit.

The $15 million project is expected to create 55 direct full-time jobs, with up to 150 indirect job in the Wide Bay Burnett district from pit to port.

Development costs are fully-funded by ABX’s marketing partner Rawmin Mining of India, subject to final due diligence when travel restrictions are lifted.

Australian Bauxite chief executive officer and managing director Ian Levy said COVID-19 restrictions had delayed the lodging of the mining lease application by up to six months.

He expected it may take about a year to gain approval, but mining could start almost immediately after that point.

The plan is to produce high-quality metallurgical-grade bauxite to be exported in large bulk carrier ships from the Port of Bundaberg.

The Sunrise Bauxite Project is expected to sell 500,000 tonnes per year of gibbsite-rich trihydrate (THA) bauxite grading 44-45 per cent aluminium oxide and and 5 per cent silicon dioxide.

Australian bauxite says this is ideal for refining into alumina by the low-temperature Bayer-process alumina refineries.

Bauxite resources total 37 million tonnes at Binjour, and the first
10 to 15 years of operation will focus on high-grade zones that require little processing.

Australian Bauxite plans to bring smaller regional bauxite deposits into operation in time to develop a long-term supply chain for this gibbsite-rich type of bauxite.