Metro locates more ore
Dutch POW honoured with medal 70 years on
THE developers of a $2 billion bauxite mine on Cape York Peninsula have discovered a 398 per cent increase in the resource, extending the project’s life by 5½ years.
Metro Mining called a halt to trading on Monday pending yesterday’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange. Share prices rose from 85¢ to 90¢ yesterday.
The company said the ore reserve at its Bauxite Hills project near Weipa had risen by 398 per cent, from 12.1 million tonnes to 48.2 million tonnes, with the latest technical data extending the mine life from 21½ to 27 years.
Earlier the company announced a Total Direct Shipping Ore Reserve – Measured, Indicated and Inferred – of 56.3 million tonnes with an improved resource quality. Indonesia when he was captured by the Japanese.
At 18 years old he’d seen comrades maimed and killed beside him during air attacks around Java, but some of Mr Beets’ worst experiences of the war would happen during his four years as a prisoner.
He and thousands of Allied soldiers, including many Dutch, British and Australians, were barely fed, lived in filth
Metro Mining chief executive Simon Finnis said it was “fantastic news for Far North Queensland, our company and the industry in general”.
“Bauxite Hills is well and truly on track to commence operations in the third quarter of next year,” he said.
Bauxite Hills, 95km north of Weipa, is expected to produce up to two million tonnes of Direct Shipping Bauxite per year. and were made to work by their Japanese captors.
The hearing troubles he has today were not caused by age, but damage to his eardrums sustained during the weeks he spent scraping rust from a previously sunken Dutch warship at Japanese gunpoint.
The young Dutchman saw POWs beaten and executed, and became convinced he would die himself in captivity.
Western Cape York is world-renown for its deposits of high-quality, export-grade bauxite.
Metro Mining’s tenements cover about 1300 sq km.
About 70 jobs will be offered, with half to be indigenous workers.
An earlier report said the mine’s original 21-year life of two million tonnes a year had revenue estimates at $55 per tonne.
“The whole time I was doubtful I would get out, but luck was on my side,” he said.
Mr Beets can still barely believe he was set free when the war ended, weighing 36kg. On the outside he met his Dutch wife, Lydia, who, remarkably, had also spent most of the war imprisoned by the Japanese. The couple moved to Far North Queensland in 1988.
A pre-feasibility study said the Cape York mine would deliver an “excellent” net present value of $197 million and provide a “much-needed boost for the Far North mining industry”.
Queensland’s annual net profit is estimated at $37.9 million.
Mr Finnis said the low capital expenditure to establish the project, combined with a simple operating strategy, delivered
Out of the blue last month, Mr Beets was contacted by the Dutch embassy and then visited by Colonel Harold Jacobs from the Royal Netherlands Army, who presented him a Mobilisation War Cross, 70 years after he was freed.
“I saluted him and he saluted me, and suddenly I was back there. It was 1941 and I was joining the war,” he said. a low-cost, long-term project with “excellent margins”.
“Importantly, we avoid costs associated with the beneficiation of the bauxite,” he said.
“International demand for bauxite, thanks to Indonesia’s ban on raw material exports, is increasing and our proposed mine is located close to international shipping routes with low freight costs to China.”