Rawmin India has come to the party to get Queensland’s Sunrise bauxite project off the ground in a joint venture that will see it stump up $18 million for the development.

The company’s Australian vehicle Alumin has entered an agreement with project proponent ABx Group to develop the bauxite mine and associated port operations.

“It’s a great day to celebrate,” ABx Group chief executive officer Mark Cooksey said.

” We overcame many challenges and two years’ delay caused by border closures due to COVID.”

It is anticipated that the mine – south-west of Bundaberg – will operate for a minimum of 20 years and will employ local workers in the area.

ABx estimates that up to 50 direct staff will be employed to operate the mine site and port facilities.

Sunrise bauxite project has JORC-compliant Resources of 37 million tonnes of bauxite on the Binjour plateau, with potential for extensions.

The mine site is situated 115km from Bundaberg Port (200km by road) between the towns of Mundubbera and Gayndah.

it is expected to export at a rate of 500,000 tonnes per year of metallurgical grade bauxite in its first year of production, before scaling up to full operational capacity of 2 million tonnes.

Under the joint venture agreement, Alumin will contribute up to $18 million of the development costs – earning up to a maximum of 49.9 per cent equity in the project.

ABx anticipates the JV agreement to fund all operations associated with mine and port development.

The company said it could now commence finalisation of the project approval process and firm up the timeline to project commencement.

ABx Group state manager for Queensland Mark Luca said the ompany was working closely with local community groups to ensure engagement.

“This joint venture agreement allows us to progress the mine lease application process. Today is a momentous occasion for this project,” he said.