SOUTH West Pacific Bauxite Company has been granted a Mining Lease by the government to mine bauxite on Wagina Island in Choiseul province.

Posted on the Forum Solomon Islands International (Social Media), Southwest Pacific Bauxite (HK) Ltd (SWPB) holds a 75 percent interest in Solomon Bauxite Ltd (SBL), which in turn holds 100 percent of the Vaghena Island Bauxite Project.

The Project is held under PL73/11 and comprises tenements covering around 45 square km on the eastern side of Vaghena Island (also known as Wagina Island).

The Island is relatively small, with a land area of around 78 square km.

It lies between the large islands of Choiseul and Santa Isabel provinces.

It is also a low-lying island being composed of a succession of marine calcareous sediments and raised reef limestone ridges and plateaus, which are overlain by lateritic soil which varies on thickness from 0.3 to 12m.

Bauxite generally constitutes the upper part of the laterite profile, but in a number of places, particularly over limestone, the total laterite profile is bauxite.

The bauxite was discovered in 1968 by CRA Exploration during a reconnaissance of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (which became the independent state of Solomon Islands on July 7, 1978).

Initial scout drilling and assaying were encouraging and a mineral resource evaluation program was completed between November 1969 and November 1971.

The vast majority of the data collected by CRA remains available to SBL.

In 2013, Breakaway Mining Services (BMS) developed a digital resource model and a resource estimate for the Project which complies with the minimum standards, recommendations and guidelines of the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC).

It was prepared in accordance with the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (2012).

The estimate has total resources of 30.1 million tonnes, which translate into an in-situ mining inventory of 29.1 million tonnes (and waste of 20.2 million tonnes) after applying physical and economic factors.

In August 2014 SBL completed a feasibility study (FS) for the Project, with GR Engineering Services (GRES) as the lead study manager.

This involved conventional open pit mining and processing to produce a total of 1.2 million tonnes of dry bauxite product for sale into the export market in the first year of operation, expanding to a sustainable rate of 2.0 million tonnes per annum by year 3.

The study outlined a robust investment scenario with attractive returns. However, SBL commissioned BMS to prepare a modified staged development plan in order to address certain factors, including:

• Uncertainty surrounding drying rates under Island conditions,
  • minimising capital costs early in the Project life,
  • minimizing technical risk, as far as possible,
  • minimizing development time-frame,
  • establishing a market presence for Vaghena bauxite, and
  • sovereign risk.

The staged development plan incorporates many of the features and strategies of the initial FS and has two construction and operational phases.

Stage 1, aims to gather operating data to be used to optimize final design features while building production to 0.5Mtpa. Stage 2, expands production to the sustainable target 2Mtpa production rate.

An open pit optimisation was prepared for the Project by Perth based mining consultancy Optiro Pty Ltd.

The mined bauxite will be delivered to a “Run of Mine” (ROM) area, located near the center of the Island where drying is undertaken to improve the materials handling characteristics of the bauxite and to reduce the moisture content towards the target product specification.