Canadian natural resources company First Bauxite Corporation on Thursday announced its find of a potential 5.9M tonnes of bauxite at its operations here.
According to a news release from the company, in August last year the company discovered bauxite at the surface in the south-western area of its Waratilla-Cartwright Prospecting Licence termed “Warcart PL” and had started drilling at the location on June 3.
According to the company, the deposit, now named Bonasika 7, hosts a NI 43-101 compliant unwashed bauxite indicated mineral resource estimate of 5.9 million tonnes.
The company stated that last August the mineral resource estimate for the Upper Waratilla Cartwright deposit, which has now been renamed Bonasika 6, was made known.
These deposits, the company stated, are now referred to as the Bonasika 6 and 7 deposits, respectively because they are a part of the Bonasika mineralised region and are key elements to project development.
According to the company, since June last year, 192 resource holes have been drilled on the Bonasika 7 deposit, totaling 7017 meters on an overall 85m x 85m drill pattern. The company also excavated bauxite bulk samples for tests and core samples were sent to a company in Lakefield, Ontario, Canada for mineralogical studies.
Core sampling has been conducted at the Bonasika 7 site and 2489 chemical analyses of the core have been carried out by Acme Laboratories in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The exploration work on the Bonasika 7 project has allowed for a NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate for unwashed bauxite over a potentially mineable zone covering some 100 hectares. While the deposit is exposed at surface, and hence there is ready access to the deposit, the overall average overburden thickness is 28.6 meters; the bauxite thickness averages 4.1 meters.
According to First Bauxite, the five Bonasika bauxite deposits have been modelled and the resources estimated and categorised according to the specific drill spacing and continuity of mineralisation of each deposit.
On this latest development, company CEO and Director, Hilbert N. Shields, is quoted as saying: “With these results, FBX has now confirmed the geological prognosis that the Bonasika deposits host considerable refractory grade bauxites. While we are comfortable that there is still more bauxite to be inventoried, our focus now is on optimizing the Bonasika Feasibility Study to include the Bonasika 6 & 7 resources in the economic assessment of the project.”
The company has its head office in Vancouver, Canada and its current assets in Guyana and according to the release, the company is managed by experienced geoscientists and business development professionals with worldwide experience in the exploration and mining business across a number of mineral commodities.
First Bauxite controls a large land package in Guyana’s historical coastal bauxite belt, including the Bonasika Mining Licence and the Waratilla-Cartwright Prospecting License, covering deposits which were drilled in the 1940s-60s by ALCAN and which host near surface deposits of refractory grade bauxite.
The company also recently acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of Bauxite Corporation of Guyana Inc. (BCGI) and accordingly, 100% of its interest in the contiguous Tarakuli and Tarakuli North-West Prospecting Licences in Northeast Guyana.
