Allup Silica Ltd (ASX:APS) welcomes the results of its latest hand auger drill program across privately owned and cleared farmland at the Sparkler C Project in WA, which identified high-purity silica sand to depths of 2.4 metres.
Results from assays revealed an average raw materials surface grade of 98.8% silica, with the potential for premium 99.5% silica and sub-100 parts per million (ppm) iron silica sands once the material is processed from its raw state.
High-purity targets defined
The program has set the company up with defined high-purity target areas for a follow-up aircore drilling campaign, due to start early in the new year.
Allup is now advancing key work streams to progress the project with land access and heritage agreements in place for all holdings and all eyes on further developing the high-purity mineralisation in 2023.
Buoyed by the results, Allup will continue with an aircore drilling program and a full metallurgical beneficiation test work program to identify the potential for these raw silica sands to clean up into a specification for a suitable silica sand that can be used in the production of glass, being greater than 99.5% silica and sub-100ppm iron.
Sparkler C is co-located with Sparkler A in southwest Western Australia, which saw grades suitable for the glass used in the photovoltaic industry.
Low-impact exploration
The company is prosecuting a low-impact exploration strategy using a targeting methodology that minimises the need to clear native vegetation and the intention, where possible, to remove unwanted sand from farmland exposing the more valuable soil types to be found below.
Low-impact hand auger drilling underway.
The company has also conducted a similar hand auger drilling program over at its Pink Bark Silica Sand Exploration Project – the samples are at the lab, with results expected in Q1 2023.
Allup Silica chair Andrew Haythorpe said: “The results being returned from the hand auger drilling program recently undertaken within our Sparkler C project area, have given the board great optimism that the company’s strategy of low-impact exploration to identify those areas of the greatest resource potential and purity is working well and returning the results we were hoping for.
“I am very pleased to be announcing these high-purity returns and look forward to the next drilling phase that will give a greater understanding of the extent of the high-grade resource.”
The follow-up aircore drilling program looks to expand its Sparkler Silica Sand Exploration Project, searching for more suitable silica sand in addition to the 70-million-tonne inferred mineral resource estimate at Sparkler A.