How Queensland Bauxite Ltd plans to cash in on cannabis

By Steve Holland
Source: fool.com.au

A bauxite company branching out into cannabis may seem an unusual prospect.

But the venture appears to be paying off for Queensland Bauxite Ltd (ASX: QBL) shareholders.

The Queensland Bauxite share price has gained 550 per cent in the past year, although the company is yet to realise its ambitions to mine bauxite.

That could change, with the company announcing in October that it has been granted a mining development lease for its South Johnstone Bauxite Project.

However, it seems investors may not be as inspired by Queensland Bauxite’s prospects of mining bauxite as they are with the company’s other endeavours.

Queensland Bauxite, with a market value of $80 million, owns a 55 per cent stake in the unlisted Australian cannabis and hemp company Medical Cannabis Limited.

Medical Cannabis Limited has been behind a series of announcements suggesting the company is on the cusp of cashing in on the potentially lucrative medical cannabis market.

In December, Queensland Bauxite announced that Medical Cannabis Limited had signed an agreement with Algae Tec Ltd (ASX: AEB), in which Algae Tec would exclusively license a Medical Cannabis hemp seed.

In another development, Queensland Bauxite announced that a subsidiary of its subsidiary Medical Cannabis, VitaCann Pty Ltd, had struck an agreement with Canadian company Canntab Therapeutics Limited.

Under the agreement, the companies hope to bring to market a cannabis pill which they describe as a “game changing medicinal solution”.

Queensland Bauxite also praised the recent relaxation of restrictions governing the exportation of cannabis products, which has seen the ASX pot stocks enjoy strong gains.

Auscann Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: AC8) continues to soar, notching up another 9.4 per cent on Monday.

Other pot stocks, including Creso Pharma Ltd (ASX: CPH), Cannpal Animal Therapeutics Ltd (ASX: CP1), Botanix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: BOT), Zelda Therapeutics Ltd (ASX: ZLD) and MGC Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: MXC), also enjoyed gains on Monday.