May Queen South Bauxite Project
Highlights
Australasian Metals Limited (ASX: A8G, Australasian or the Company) is pleased to advise that the Company has entered into an agreement to acquire the May Queen South Bauxite project (the Project, Figure 1). The vendor is Atlantic Lithium Limited (formerly Ironridge Resources Limited) an existing major shareholder of Australasian.
- A8G has agreed to acquire the May Queen South Bauxite Project (EL 16260 and EPM 16261)
- JORC 2012 Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate of 54.9Mt bauxite mineral at 37.5% total alumina and 7.9% total silica
- Excellent available alumina to reactive silica ratios with predominantly gibbsite mineralogy
- Located <55km from existing rail infrastructure with connections to the Port of Bundaberg
- Preliminary scouting metallurgical test-work indicates potential to beneficiate:
- Good to premium quality DSO (35-40% available alumina, 1-3% reactive silica) through simple crushing, screening and scrubbing of the 1 to 3m thick surface duricrust
- Fair quality DSO (<30% available alumina, >5% reactive silica) at 38% mass recovery through simple crushing and screening of the subsurface bauxite profile
Location and Tenure
The May Queen South Bauxite project is located in central Queensland, within a short trucking distance of a rail system leading north to the Port of Bundaberg. It is also located within close proximity of the main Queensland Rail network heading south towards the Port of Brisbane.
The Project is wholly owned by Eastern Exploration Pty Ltd, previous name Eastern Uranium Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Atlantic Lithium Limited.
Bauxite mineralised plateaus and zones defined to date are shown in Figure 2 below, along with RC drilling locations. Mapping, sampling and initial laboratory assay results have defined significant high‐grade bauxite mineralisation at average 42% alumina over a combined surface area of 16km2 . There is strong customer demand for this ore type.
The Project has a JORC 2012 Inferred Mineral Resource estimate of 54.9Mt at 37.5% total Al2O3% and 5.2% Ti2O and 7.9% Rx SiO2% .
Preliminary scoping metallurgical test-work including size reduction, scrubbing and sizing was completed at Core Resources laboratory in Brisbane, Australia on representative 25 to 50kg bulk samples of the surface duricrust and bauxite resource. This work was carried out, to test whether a ‘premium quality’ DSO product could be easily beneficiated through simple crushing, scrubbing and screening.
Historical Exploration
A historical study has indicated additional high-grade titanium results within the resource drilling with grades consistently reported between 3.8% to 5.0% TiO2. Previous mineralogical work has identified rutile and ilmenite as the main titanium bearing phases occurring within the bauxite profile. The downhole grade profile from resource drilling indicates a surface enriched titanium zone that progressively reduces in grade down the bauxite profile. Additional resource potential exists for a high-grade pre-strip titanium concentrate.
Figure 1. Location of Tenements 16260 and 16261, A8G existing tenements in May Queen gold project
Figure 2. Basic geology of the EPM16260 and EPM 16261 with RC hole’s locations marked