First Bauxite gets two-year extension on Bonasika project

Dec 10, 2015 News

Government has granted First Bauxite Corporation a two-year extension to the construction commencement date under the Bonasika Mining Licence (“BML”), the company announced yesterday. The period is from

First Bauxite has been granted a 2-year extension to start building its mining facilities in Bonasika, up the Essequibo River.

January 31, 2016 to January 31, 2018.
In addition, the company may benefit from a further one-year extension to January 31, 2019 if the Government is satisfied, after a review of the performance and financial standing of the company that such an extension has merit.
The company said it will now discuss with the Government, specific modifications that are required to the Mineral Agreement, BML and Environmental Permit to reflect the new Bonasika Ceramic Proppant Project (“Bonasika Project”) scope.
“First Bauxite is also pleased to provide a general business update and detail on the expected use of proceeds from the US$15M private placement of secured convertible notes to Resource Capital Funds announced October 30, 2015 to close in two tranches, the first of which has closed in the amount of US$4 million, the second of which is expected to close in January 2016.”
As part of the discussions with the government on the BML extension, the company has agreed to allocate some of the proceeds from the private placement to initial design, permitting and infrastructure construction activities in Guyana during 2016.
“It is expected activities will focus on preliminary detailed design and engineering, the construction of wharves on either side of the Demerara River and on initial mine development.
The company is also using a portion of the proceeds from the private placement to undertake a bulk sample pit programme to confirm mining and processing assumptions in the Bonasika Project Feasibility Study (“FS”) and to produce commercial volumes of ceramic proppants in a full scale ceramic proppant production facility. The company also intends to conduct field trials in select deep oil wells. Mining the bulk sample has commenced and planning work for trial ceramic proppant production is well underway,” First Bauxite disclosed.
The company is a Canadian natural resource company engaged in the exploration and development of bauxite deposits in Guyana but has its head office in Toronto.
The addition of the Bonasika project would spell good news for the bauxite industry which has been in the doldrums in recent years.
The Russians, through Rusal, and Chinese, in Bosai—both are in Region Ten– have a foothold here but the industry has not been experiencing good world prices.