VRX Silica (ASX: VRX) has provided its annual report to shareholders for the financial year ended 30 June 2020.
In his letter to shareholders, VRX chair Paul Boyatzis said,
It has been a very busy and productive year for VRX Silica Limited as your Company continued to advance its high-grade silica sand projects at Arrowsmith North, Arrowsmith Central and Muchea.
The Western Australian government has maintained a hard border stance which has kept the mining industry in WA relatively insulated. This stance although understandable has not been without consequences, with labour and skills shortages being experienced across many sectors of the mining and general business community. The immediate and continuing impact and risk of COVID-19 to the mining and exploration industry has been ever present in our daily considerations.
VRX Silica Limited, fortunately is headquartered in Perth Western Australia as are the Company’s personnel and consultants. Likewise, the Company’s Silica Sand Projects: Arrowsmith North, Arrowsmith Central, Muchea and Boyatup are all located in Western Australia. This has enabled your Company to keep its experienced team and consultants fully engaged and actively progressing all projects.
Significant progress has been made during the past year and a comprehensive and detailed description of the important events follows in the ‘Company Review’. However, it is worth highlighting some of the key achievements:
- Mining leases granted for all the company’s three Silica Sand projects;
- Extensive environmental studies conducted on all the company’s silica sand projects over each season;
- Comprehensively reviewed a ‘proof of concept’ Vegetation Direct Transfer (VDT) trial;
- Lodged Project Referrals with Federal and State environmental assessment agencies;
- Continues to engage with those agencies to progress the environmental approvals for mining at Arrowsmith North;
- The first 6 to 10 years of proposed mining at Arrowsmith North has been grade controlled;
- Significant test work was successfully conducted in order to produce a number of specific marketable products;
- Significant progress has been made on the engineering of the proposed plant by experienced engineers ProjX;
- The proposed plant design was conducted with the aim to operate predominately with recycled water;
- Commencement of drilling the Bore field water supply for the plant;
- Investigated opportunities for the project to be powered by gas with supporting solar;
- Engaged with potential final use offtake partners and sent numerous samples of various volumes for testing.
- VRX Silica Limited is very conscious of its social licence obligations and during the year proactively engaged with the traditional owners, conducted Heritage Surveys at all projects, and engaged with stakeholders;
- Completed greenhouse gas emissions estimates as part of its maiden ESG reporting included in this Annual Report.
I am pleased to advise that during the year the Company was chosen by Morgan Stanley Capital International to be included in their MSCI Australia Micro-Cap Index which is designed to measure the performance of the Micro-Cap segment of companies traded on the ASX.
Also, a large international institution joined our shareholder register as a Substantial Shareholder which recognises the prospectivity of the Company’s projects.
A high exercise rate of the Company’s listed options (VRXO) places the Company in a strong financial position.
Finally on behalf of the Board, I would like to thank all staff, contractors and consultants for their valuable contribution during the year which globally has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
