Bauxite lifts Athena forecast

Bauxite Resources has announced an increased forecast for its Athena deposit in Western Australia’s Darling Range.

The company is now projecting 36.2 million tonnes of alumina near the surface and close to existing bauxite state agreement areas.

The site is part of a joint venture with HD Mining & Investments, which has made a binding commitment to undertake a feasibility study of the resources and fund the exploration activities.

In return, HD Mining will receive a 40 per cent interest in the resource.

“This is a great result for our joint venture with HD Mining,” Bauxite chief executive Peter Canterbury said.

“We have recently identified two new potential project areas under the HD Mining joint venture, Dionysus in the northern Darling Range and Athena in the eastern Darling Range.

“Combined, the two resources (Ceres and Athena) total 51 million tonnes and indicate to us that this may emerge as a new bauxite district.

“We have commissioned a scoping study and market evaluation investigation for our 100 per cent owned Fortuna project, which are due for completion in September 2014.

“It is envisaged many outcomes will also apply to Athena and Dionysus, placing us in a good position to explore possible development of the HD projects.”

Bauxite was unchanged at 13.5 cents per share at the time of writing.