Volcan Holdings Australian Volcanic Bauxite Projects Update

SYDNEY, Australia, Dec. 31  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Volcan Holdings Inc., (OTC:VOHO) (BULLETIN BOARD: VOHO)  through its wholly-owned subsidiary Volcan Australia Corporation Pty Ltd, has secured tenement access to over 4,000km2 of bauxite-prospective ground in New South Wales, Australia.  The tenements are located in the northern and southern parts of the state and encompass two large volcanic provinces known to host widespread deposits of bauxite.  The bauxite deposits in these provinces are very different to the traditional deposits mined in many parts of the world, and appear to have been formed by a unique combination of volcanic and weathering processes to produce gibbsite-rich rocks with high available aluminium (up to 60%) and low reactive silica (as low as 1.5%), when concentrated near ancient basaltic volcanic vents.

  Project highlights to-date include:-

  1. Bauxite exploration tenements secured and offered for grant by the New
     South Wales Department of Primary Industries includes, ELA 3506 in the
     Central Volcanic Province near Inverell covering approximately
     1,000km2, and ELA 3595 in the Monaro Volcanic Province near Cooma
     covering more than 3,500km2.  Total prospective area >4,500km2.
  2. Thick deposits of bauxitic rocks (greater than 20m) discovered in at
     least 3 large volcanic domes within Exploration License Application
     3506, with the domes encompassing a total aggregate area of more than
     70km2, and the potential to host world class deposits in the hundreds
     of millions of tons just within these 3 dome structures covering only
     about 2% of the prospective area, with potential for identification of
     billions of tons of resource within our various project areas. Such
     world class sized deposits, should they be of sufficient economic
     grade, as we believe our projects  host based on our results to date as
     detailed below, typically can generate annual revenues in the billions
     of dollars. Our goal is to mine sufficient high grade bauxite to
     profitably produce through refining and smelting a minimum of 5 million
     tons of aluminium per annum. At current aluminium prices of $1,500 per
     ton, 5 million tons of aluminium per annum would generate annual
     revenues of $7.5 billion.
  3. Outcrop sampling across one of the largest target domes, has confirmed
     the existence of significant deposits of commercial grade bauxite, with
     available Al and reactive Si percentages ranging up to 59% Al, and as
     low as 1.2% Si.  Current grade modelling indicates averages of Al = 38%
     & Si = 3% across the area sampled to-date.
  4. Hydrothermally altered basaltic volcaniclastic rocks hosting rich
     concentrations of almost pure gibbsite have also been found in
     suspected near-vent locations within parts of these domes yielding Al
     values as high as 59% and Si values as low as 1.2%.
  5. The samples taken to date have shown in the lab to be suitable for
     low-temperature refining using the Bayer Process. This is a serious
     advantage for the economics of bauxite refining, as low-temperature
     refining uses significantly less energy than the high temperature
     refining necessary in many other bauxite projects, which is one of the
     main ongoing operating costs in those projects rendering many
     uneconomic in the current climate.
  6. Numerous volcanic structures hosting bauxite deposits have also been
     identified within ELA 3595, while deep drilling and stratigraphic
     mapping has determined that approximately 9% of the entire vertical
     volcanic pile in the Monaro Volcanic Province is bauxitic.
  7. Bauxite deposits in both tenement areas are close to potentially
     available sources of power and water that may support refinery
     development for local processing of economic deposits.



For the detailed update report, including colored maps, please see http://www.volcan.com.au/ 

DATASOURCE: Volcan Holdings Inc.



CONTACT:  Sholom Feldman of Volcan Holdings Inc., [phone],





Web Site:  htt://www.volcan.com.au 

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