Bauxite Resources Limited - Announce Patent Application - Process For Treating An Ore Or Related Material Containing Aluminium Bearing Minerals
24.01.2011 | ABN Newswire
17:14 AEST Jan 24, 2011 ABN Newswire (C) 2004-2011 Asia Business News PL. All Rights Reserved.Perth, Australia (ABN Newswire) - In the past two years, Bauxite Resources Limited (\'BRL\' or the Company\') (ASX: BAU) has made extensive investigation and experimentation of available processes to produce alumina. The investigation has been a prelude to technology decisions for a new alumina refinery to be built in south-west WA. At the conclusion of these investigations BRL with its partner Yankuang Resources Pty Ltd will choose the alkali-based Bayer process as appropriate for their proposal.
In its research however BRL has developed and filed a Patent Application for an acid based process for treating an ore or related material containing aluminium-bearing materials. The application covers a confidential acidic process that solubilises minerals and then selectively recovers aluminium and other metal species by means of precipitation or solvent extraction. The end product is aluminium oxide (alumina) and other metal oxides. The results demonstrate that acid extractable alumina can be higher than from alkali extractions and that extraction is independent of reactive silica content.
About Bauxite Resources Limited:
Bauxite Resources Limited (ASX:BAU) was launched in May 2006 to establish itself in the bauxite and alumina industries in Western Australia where four of the seven Australian alumina refineries and four of Australia's bauxite mines are located. It listed successfully on the ASX on 22 October 2007 after closing its A$7.5 million IPO early and oversubscribed, having previously raised approximately $1.3 million in seed capital. In February 2009 the Company raised a further $4.7 million on the uptake of its options issue.
The Company is the only ASX-listed bauxite explorer in the highly prospective Darling Range, and is the largest tenement holder in the Darling Range with approximately 15,000 square kilometres of prospective bauxite laterite ground. To put this into context this area is larger than East Timor and almost the size of Beijing Municipality.
The Darling Range is the largest bauxite mining and alumina producing region in the world. This area supplies approximately 18% of the world's alumina and is home to Alcoa's Huntly Mine, the largest producing bauxite mine in the world and Pinjara Refinery the second largest alumina refinery in the world. The Darling Range has three of the top five refineries in the world in terms of lowest operating costs.
Contact:
INVESTORS
Paul Fromson
Chief Financial Officer / Company Secretary
Bauxite Resources Ltd
Tel: +61-8-9200-6300
MEDIA
Chantelle O\'Sullivan
Public Affairs Manager
Bauxite Resources Ltd
Tel: +61-8-9200-6309