Ventnor Resources Limited (ASX:VRX) has revealed a maiden mineral resource for its Arrowsmith North prospect, a key component of the company’s Arrowsmith silica sand project north of Perth. The prospect has an inferred mineral resource of 193.6 million tonnes at 98 per cent silicon dioxide, being 38 per cent larger than Ventnor’s previous exploration target. The project area has only been tested with shallow auger. Further drilling planned for late 2018 will use deeper aircore drill holes and is expected to add substantially to the maiden resource.
Muchea Acquisition
Earlier in the year, on 31 January 2018 Ventnor requested the ASX grant an immediate trading halt in the Company’s quoted securities in order to facilitate an orderly market in the Company’s securities pending a material announcement about a proposed transaction, being the Muchea Option. On 2 February 2018, ASX suspended the Company’s securities from trading at the request of the Company.
ASX determined that the transaction for the Muchea Option comprised a change in the nature and/or scale of the Company’s activities and trading in its shares was to remain suspended until the Company had sought shareholder approval for the transaction and re-complied with Chapters 1 and 2 of the ASX Listing Rules for a re-listing of its shares in ASX.
In late July 2018, the Company entered into new agreements with Wisecat Pty Ltd and Australian Silica Pty Ltd to immediately acquire 100% of the Muchea Silica Sand Project (Muchea Project) in lieu of the Muchea Option in consideration for the issue of an aggregate of 8,333,333 Ventnor shares to Wisecat Pty Ltd and 65 million Ventnor shares and 20 million options over Ventnor shares to Australian Silica and an ongoing net production royalty of 1% subject to shareholder approval.
Shareholder approval sought for the issue of the shares and options (where required) was obtained on 12 September 2018.
Under the new transaction structure for the Muchea Silica Sand Project, ASX confirmed that the Company was no longer required to re-comply with ASX’s admission requirements for the re-listing of the Company’s shares and trading in its shares recommenced on 2 August 2018.
Tenement E70/4886 (Tenement) with the adjacent license application ELA 70/5157 forms the Muchea Project located 50km north of Perth, Western Australia and covers an area of 93km2 .
Arrowsmith Project
Also on 2 August Ventnor announced the development program for the Arrowsmith (Arrowsmith) and Muchea (Muchea) Silica Sand Projects.
The Muchea acquisition complements Ventnor’s Arrowsmith Project which comprises 3 granted exploration licenses and one application covering a total area of approximately 350 km2 which is broken down into 3 smaller project areas, namely Arrowsmith North, Central and South
Ventnor is now poised to rapidly develop the potential of these substantial silica sand resources as the time spent in Voluntary Suspension had been spent planning the development program and completed preparation for the implementation of environmental studies, resources estimations, testwork programs and infill drilling programs.
