Category: General

First Bauxite is pleased to announce the commissioning of new process and quality control facilities at its bauxite mining and beneficiation plant in Guyana, South America. The investment includes construction of a 6900 square-foot purpose-built building that houses a new quality control (QC) laboratory, offices and conferencing & training rooms, located at the company’s processing and shiploading facility at Sandhills. This is augmented with a new process control (satellite) laboratory located at the Bonasika mine and beneficiation plant.

The Sandhills QC laboratory is outfitted with state -of-the-art equipment and benefits from new sampling & testing protocols and a data management system that are all designed to increase the scope & capacity of assays that are performed. This will ensure accurate, consistent analyses and optimised ‘sampling to reporting’ turnaround times. 

The satellite laboratory will support the Mining Team with grade control and stockpile management including lot tracking & traceability. It will also support the Production Team with ‘near real time’ process control data to enable washplant optimisation, ensuring consistency and adherence to finished product specifications. 

In addition to the new hardware, the company is making significant investments in training and development for the Technical Services team with the specialized knowledge and experience from the global First Bauxite group. It is also leveraging relationships with internationally recognised external analytics partners and reference laboratories that provide round-robin benchmarking and auditing services. 

This major investment comes at a time when the market increasingly demands accuracy, consistency, and reliability from its suppliers. First Bauxite has equipped itself for the long haul to be a reliable and trustworthy supply partner that can meet the needs of its customers, providing full Mine-to-Customer traceability. 

First Bauxite’s latest effort in its development program for the Sandhills Community is the introduction of high-speed internet at the Sandhills School. This initiative, launched a year ago, is expanding learning opportunities for the community’s children and making it easier for students to collaborate, share ideas and access online resources.

Sandhills is a remote riverine community located on the west bank of the Demerara River, approximately fifty kilometres from the capital Georgetown. It is accessible by river and via a network of forest trails but due to its remote location, falls outside the electricity and water utility coverage areas. First Bauxite’s processing and shiploading facility is located adjacent to the Sandhills Community and in August of 2020 the headteacher at the community school wrote to the company requesting assistance with providing online learning for its students. COVID-19 was raging at the time and the students were unable to attend school in-person. The school, which was built by First Bauxite and handed over to the community in late 2019, was like many schools – wrestling with the challenges of COVID and the impact it was having on student learning. 

The timing of the request was fortuitous as First Bauxite was actively working to connect its Guyana operations to high-speed broadband internet to ensure seamless high-speed voice and data services across the business. Construction of the project began in August 2022 and involved the building of a cell tower and the laying of more than 25km of fibre optic cable. The scope of the project was consequently broadened to include laying fibre to the Sandhills School and providing the necessary hardware to enable the schoolchildren to enjoy high speed internet within the school grounds.  The company also agreed to provide IT equipment including laptops and printers to facilitate virtual learning at the school. The project entered its final phase in May 2023 and the school compound went live in August last year.

When asked about the new service, Headteacher Mrs Bowman commented that the internet was actively used for educational purposes within the school and that the system had been working well with strong signal inside the school, extending to 20-30ft outside the building. When asked about the impact the new service has had on the children, staff and most importantly the learning experience, it was clear that this first of a kind project in Guyana, involving a mining company providing free-of-charge broadband internet to a local community school, has proven to be a huge success. 

The team at First Bauxite is immensely proud of this achievement but is not resting on its laurels. The company is already in talks with its telecoms provider to broaden the coverage area and make broadband internet available to the entire Sandhills Community. In the coming weeks First Bauxite hopes to announce a further development in this project that will see additional access points installed in the village to facilitate access to subscription-based internet services for all residents of the community. 

First Bauxite is committed to working with the communities around its operations to help them deliver on their development objectives and continuing its work as a good development partner for the Sandhills Community.

Princess Punch is a talented mining professional who joined First Bauxite in December 2019 as a Mine Engineer. She quickly made a mark in the organisation by demonstrating a focus and commitment to her work, that belied her years in the industry. This focus and drive established her credentials and earned the respect of her colleagues in a very male dominated environment.

Previously, Princess cut her teeth as a Grade Control Technician and Junior Mine Engineer at the Aurora Gold Mine (AGM) company in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni district of Guyana, after completing her undergraduate studies in Applied and Exploration Geology at the University of Guyana in 2017. It was clear early on during her tenure at First Bauxite that Princess was destined to achieve great things in the industry and that she was driven to develop and broaden her skills and experience. 

She completed courses in the Geovia suite of mine optimisation software tools, trained in surface and underground mine rescue, first aid, CPR & AED and added the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles to her impressive list of technical capabilities. Consequently, she was promoted to Long-Term Planning Engineer in May 2021 and almost simultaneously embarked on a Masters Degree in Mining Engineering and Management, which she successfully completed last year at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. 

Armed with her newly minted postgraduate degree and the knowledge and skills that the two-year intensive program had given her, Princess was promoted into her current role as Mine Superintendent, leading the mining team at the company’s Bonasika mine.

The entire First Bauxite family is immensely proud of Princess and her achievements to date and has no doubt that this is the first chapter in what will we be a long and successful career in Mine Management & Leadership. The company continues its development:- entering new markets, developing new products, acquiring and operating its own mining fleet and implementing powerful mine operational management systems, and with a cadre of talented professionals including Princess driving productivity and efficiency gains throughout the business, First Bauxite looks forward to cementing its position as a premier supplier in the industry.

First Bauxite will be attending Bauxite & Alumina 2024 in Miami, April 22-23. We are excited to share news about new products we are developing with our high purity Gibbsitic Bauxite and the work we are doing around sustainability. If you are attending and would like to know more, please feel free to reach out to Nathan Wollenburg – Vice President, Commercial at nwollenburg@firstbauxite.com. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Mike joined First Bauxite on January 22^nd as Sales Manager, reporting directly to the Vice President, Commercial, FBX LLC. 

He brings a wealth of expertise from his previous roles, including New Business & Marking Manager at CDM Tool and Manufacturing, Industrial Sales Representative at US Lubricants, and most recently Regional Sales Manager at Vesuvius USA. Mike comes to us with industry knowledge and a full understanding of the sales cycle, making him well placed to create value by identifying potential customers and offering technical solutions. 

With a proven track record of technical sales and partnering with customers to provide value added solutions, Mike is well-equipped to effectively promote and sell our products achieving maximum profitability and market penetration. 

When not at work, Mike can be found traveling with his family, enjoying outdoor activities or creating timeless pieces of functional art in his wood shop.

Guyana Industrial Minerals Inc. (GINMIN), our subsidiary, recently won recognition from the National Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health (Guyana). At a recent ceremony in Georgetown, GINMIN received awards in the following categories:

Best in the Sector – Mining
Best in the Region – Region 3
Joint Work Safety & Health Committee
Leadership commitment to safety – General Manager
 
Being awarded for these four categories is a significant achievement, and it reflects GINMIN’s unwavering focus on maintaining a safe and healthy work environment for employees. GINMIN takes great pride in its safety program and is committed to continuously improving to ensure the well-being of employees.

Congratulations to all who have contributed to GINMIN’s safety success.

GINMIN’s Health and Safety Manager, Timothy Babooram accepted the awards on behalf of the Company