Former Tasmanian Labor premier Paul Lennon has shown his...

Former Tasmanian Labor premier Paul Lennon has shown his confidence in the mining company he chairs by buying 400,000 shares in recent weeks.



DIGGING IN: Australian Bauxite Limited mining operations at Bald Hill, near Campbell Town. Company directors have been buying up shares in recent times.
Mr Lennon spent $43,250 on Australian Bauxite Limited shares in two on-market transactions in late May and mid-June.
Fellow directors Ian Levy  and Ken Boundy acquired 200,000 shares  and 150,000 shares respectively in late May, spending $35,000 between them.
Australian Bauxite mines at Bald Hill, near Campbell Town.
It has other bauxite deposits in Tasmania and on the mainland.
Its share price has increased by more than 50 per cent since mid-June.
The company hopes to start mining bauxite at its Binjour Project, 115 kilometres from Bundaberg.
It told the ASX its marketing partner, Rawmin Mining and Industries, wanted to take a review of the project to a further stage.
That would include talks with banks about project finance, the start of economic assessments and providing marketing samples to potential customers.
“Rawmin will lead this project assessment for the rest of 2017, whilst ABx staff focus on making shipments of cement-grade bauxite from its Tasmanian operations,” Australian Bauxite chief operating officer Leon Hawker said.
“The greater Binjour project has potential to produce metallurgical grade bauxite during the dry season, which is the same time of year that monsoons close the ports in western India that Rawmin uses to export its bauxite.
“Coordination between Rawmin and ABx could supply good quality trihydrate gibbsite bauxite to an alumina refinery all year round.”
At the company’s annual meeting in late May, Mr Lennon said there had been an unexpected strengthening of prices for metallurgical bauxite prices for the aluminium industry  in the past two to three months.
He said that might “be a foretaste of better opportunities ahead should the price firm by by a few dollars more per tonne”.
“For the first time in over 18 months, ABx has begun talks with potential buyers in the aluminium industry.
“Bauxite prices in our other markets, especially cement-grade, are firming as infrastructure construction expands.”