Driving Australian Prosperity

Project Details

Approximately 600km north-west of Sydney (Australia), New England bauxite project is located immediately to the north-east and east of Inverell within EL 7301. Volcan Australia Corporation (VAC) has tenement access to more than 1000km2 of area and total of 336 units within EL 7301. A large scale satellite interpretation program followed by a field sampling program, has identified extensive bauxite signatures across the entire Inverell tenement base. The figure below shows the New England Bauxite Tenements E.L.7277 (411 km2) and E.L.7301 & 7302 (1008 km2) in relation to the towns of Glen Innes and Inverell.

Previous Exploration & Mining

In 1875, the first occurrence of lateritic material in New South Wales was recorded by C.S. Wilkinson. Since then, a number of Geological Survey conducted in this region has identified extensive bauxite occurrences and deposits. Within EL 7301, three larges domes i.e. Nullamanna Dome, Dinton Vale Dome and the Elsmore Domeare believed to have huge potential. Nullamanna dome is the most prospective bauxite deposit identified till date in this region. This region is only 20km2 out of the thousands of km of prospective bauxite grounds, indicating the potential for bauxite in the region. Available alumina contents for bauxites “grab-sampled” across the Nullamanna Dome have been found to be as high as 57.5%, while reactive silica values have been found to be as low as 0.6%.

According to preliminary non-JORC resource estimates, the New England project areas have a potential resource of up to 300MMT with average available alumina contents in excess of 35% and reactive silica values less than 3%.

373 samples were taken at Nullamanna with a total average grade of 32% available alumina and 4.9% reactive silica. These areas are made up of higher grade zones and lower grade zones. Almost half of these samples (161 samples) were taken from areas BwN, BwOA, BwOD, IBOE, LOOB and NME. These areas, at an estimated average thickness of 1m-3.5m, have an estimated 8-15MMt at an average grade of 36.7% available alumina and 2.7% reactive silica, with some areas returning grades as high as 57.5% available alumina and as low as 0.6% reactive silica. Drilling over the edges of Nullamanna intersected a total of 106m of bauxite.

A JORC-Compliant inferred estimate (August 2011) of Bauxite resources at Inverell suggest two models of bauxite grade and tonnage in the Nullamanna area:

A. Within the higher grade zones (meaning zones with lower reactive silica), a resource of 11.9MMt min to 31.3MMt max for an assumed bauxite thickness of 0.5m (min) and 3.5m (max) in the undrilled blocks based on an average grade model of 32.2% AvAl2O3 and 3.0% RxSiO2 in the drill holes, and demanding of the model that each individual block meet the criterion of 3.5% RxSiO2 or less. This gives a mineable bauxite average thickness of 3.1m for 14 holes. 8.6MMt of this total exists in the drilled area of bauxite at Nullamanna. This would give a ratio of >10:1 available alumina to reactive silica on the areas included in this resource calculation.

B. If the cut off grade of reactive silica is increased, based on an average grade model of 32% AvAl2O3 and 4.9% RxSiO2 (surface samples) and 29.6% AvAl2O3 and 5.8% RxSiO2 (drilling) then a resource of 25MMt minimum to 50MMt maximum is calculated in the Nullamanna region for an assumed bauxite thickness of 1m (min) and 5m (max) in the undrilled blocks. 20MMt of this total exists within the drilled area. This increases the number of holes drilled in the model from 14 to 22 holes. This would give a ratio of >6:1 available alumina to reactive silica, or >5:1 in some of the sections drilled as an average of the total areas included in this resource calculation. This drilling (figure below) represents only a small area of the company’s tenements and it is possible that further significant discoveries will be confirmed in the future.

Table 1 consists of the details of grade, thickness and tonnages for the historically known deposits within the Inverell East tenements.

Advanced landform development geoformational model is being employed by Volcan Holdings in this region to identify the areas for drilling and bulk sampling. A number of key areas were identified for initial diamond core drilling and litho-stratigraphic mapping and sampling across the Nullamanna Dome. In January 2009, a second phase of surface bauxite grab sampling was carried out by the company. The results of total 373 samples analyzed by the company gave an available AI value of 32% and a reactive Si value of 4.9%.

Analysis of Nullamanna Dome Bauxites and Iron Ores

In 2010, the company further carried out advanced drilling program in the area including Calwed drilling and Aircore program. This entire drilling program confirmed the existence of thick outcrop sequences of bauxite basaltic agglomerates with commercial-grade available alumina and low reactive silica. Going forward, the company also plans to explore the other two (Dinton Vale Dome and the Elsmore Dome) highly potential domes on this tenement and the other bauxite locations in this region on the Inverell West project.

Recently, drilling program took place over the edges of Nullamanna to test the extent and depth of the resource at Nullamanna. The program suggested that bauxite occurs in patches at or close to high points in the presentday topography.

However, further drilling is required in the central area to better define the margins of these areas, their thickness, grade and tonnage, and also to define new areas in the remainder of the company’s tenements which are unexplored. However, based upon the highly encouraging results, it is believed that the New England region covered by the Company’s tenements will host sufficient commercial grade bauxite to warrant the building of a world class alumina refinery in the region.

Historic Deposits within Volcan Australia New England Tenements(Table-1)