Kalistani Major History

[Doc]

Kalistan's 6 year exploration for Bauxite meets successful end
Geologists uncover commercially promising source for Bauxite Ore in Neveras
Maridon, Neveras
January 12, 4770


Outcropping of "high quality" bauxite ore offers promise for aluminum future in Kalistan

A long dream of the Republic has been to acquire a reliable source of bauxite ore, from which aluminum may be refined. A fairly common ore, found in a reddish rock, has eluded Kalistani geological surveyors thus far, for centuries. But last week, a group of geologists associated with Neveras District University in Neveras City, Neveras, and under contract with The Neveras Ferromineral Mining Corporation, and funded by the Ministry of Trade and Industry discovered a commercially viable deposit of bauxite in the uplands of the District south of Maridon.

"It wasn't exactly under our noses," said geologist Gina Hamilton, leader of the exploration team for the last two years. "We must have gone through this area fifteen times and never saw this spot. But speaking with locals in the area, especially those who lived near Vilbin, they suggested a promising location on this very mountain, which they refer to as Dog Hill, but is officially just referred to "274 Peak" on account of its elevation. The owner of the land was contacted and took us out to see this spot where a beautiful specimen of high grade bauxite ore rock was sticking straight out of the hillside."

The redish brown specimen was tested and revealed to be a high aluminum content rock, verifying the supposition. From there, the geological team took core samples from several areas around the outcropping, and discovered that beneath the thin layer of overburden lay an estimated 76 million metric tonnes of the ore.

"This is a substantial find," said Hamilton. "We rushed the results back to the Republican Government in Kaliburg, who are currently in negotiations to purchase the land and place it in public trust. Discovering this particular deposit also gives us some idea of the chemical composition of the bauxite that is in this area, and allows us to go back over the ground out here and potentially find more by looking for chemical signatures."

Hamilton said, once the land transfer is settled, she and her team will continue to several more promising sites which were overlooked before and continue exploration. "It's kind of like a detective, finding clues, and gradually the puzzle comes into view," Hamilton said, clearly excited about the potential for finding more of the ore. The Dog Hill deposit will be exploited by Neveras Ferromineral, and a new public entity is expected to take its place in the near future. The new bauxite supplies allows Kalistan to restart its old aluminum refinery operations which produced significant amounts of aluminum earlier in this century for the Republic.