Brisbane-based emerging bauxite company Cape Alumina has released details of a 30% increase in bauxite resources for its Pisolite Hills project on the Weipa bauxite plateau of western Cape York, Queensland.
According to the company, the Pisolite Hills resource upgrade to 130Mt in situ bauxite is sufficient for 12 to 15 year initial mine life.
The expected beneficiation yield is 86.1 Mt on a dry tonnage basis.
The resource upgrade will form a pivotal component of the Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) due to commence in September. Further drilling to upgrade resource categories is planned for the 2009 field season.
Cape Alumina CEO, Dr Paul Messenger said the resource upgrade was the result of compilation and modeling of first pass drilling at the PH5 plateau and dry bulk density testwork on PH1 and PH2 plateaus completed during the 2008 field season.
The revised estimate represents an in situ Mineral Resource of 130.2 million tonnes of Measured (27.5 Mt), Indicated (56.1 Mt) and Inferred (46.6 Mt) bauxite.