Controversial junior bauxite miner Bauxite Resources has agreed to enter a revised heads of agreement with Chinese conglomerate Yankuang Resources to build a major alumina refinery in the South West.
The agreement, which is a refinement of a deal struck earlier this year, will see Yankuang provide 91 per cent of the funding needed to build a 1.1 million tonnes per annum refinery in return for 70 per cent of the product. Yankuang will also help Bauxite secure finance for its 9 per cent share of the $1 billion-plus proposal.
On signing, the partners would expect to start construction within five years, subject to positive feasibility studies, all relevant approvals and the identification of a suitable development site. The partners have previously identified the Kemerton industrial estate near Bunbury as a potential site for the plant.
The refinery would require the supply of at least 3.5 million tonnes of bauxite annually from Bauxite's proposed, but highly controversial, mining operations in the Darling Range.
However, the company has already drawn widespread community flak over noise, dust and trucking movements at its initial trial mine at Bindoon, which it had hoped to expand to a commercial scale operation.
The Environmental Protection Authority this month ruled the proposed 2 mtpa mine at Bindoon would be subjected to a full Public Environmental Review.
The company withdrew a previous application for a smaller 1.2 mtpa operation at Bindoon when the EPA ruled it should also subjected to a full PER-level assessment. Bauxite had hoped the smaller scale operation would be subjected to a lesser level of assessment.
The company hopes to ultimately develop several deposits throughout the Darling Range, where it has more than 1000 square kilometres of tenements.
As part of the revised deal, Yankuang will reimburse Bauxite for 70 per cent of past exploration expenditure, while China's Shandong No1 Institute of Geology and Minerals Exploration will fund all new exploration work to earn 60 per cent stake in Bauxite's Darling Range holdings.
