VRX Silica (ASX: VRX) today announced it has commenced the maiden 100-hole air core drilling program at its 100% owned Boyatup silica sand project located about 100km east of Esperance, Western Australia.
The drilling campaign is expected to take up to 10 days and will target a 2,000-hectare area for high-grade silica sand. Assay results will follow in late April 2022.
VRX anticipates the drilling will enable a maiden mineral resource to be estimated. Drilling will also produce bulk material for metallurgical testwork to determine the product quality that the project can produce.
Results of early work undertaken by VRX and the previous tenement holder indicated in-situ sand grades of up to 99.7% SiO2, with potential to produce a very low Fe2O3 product.
VRX’s Managing Director Bruce Maluish said: “We are able to use the expertise developed at our Arrowsmith and Muchea silica sand projects to quickly evaluate the product potential from this region.
“Early work here indicates the in-situ sand is finer than our other projects and can produce a different product for a different market. This in turn would expand the market for our silica sand products.”
