In January 2019, Australian Silica Quartz Group Limited executed a binding terms sheet through its wholly-owned subsidiary Australian Silica Quartz Pty Ltd (ASQ) with Urban Resources Pty Ltd to jointly exploit Urban’s Maralla Road Silica Sand deposit in Bullsbrook, Western Australia [1].
Urban has operated the mine for the last six years and produced over 1 Million tonnes (Mt) from the deposit in the last two years.
A JORC 2012 Inferred Mineral Resource of 10.7 Mt at 99.8 per cent silicon dioxide (SiO2) was completed by the company in early 2019 on the raw sand at Urban’s Maralla Road tenement M70/326 [2].
The company has developed specifications for two silica sand products (ASQ-GWW1 and ASQ-GWSC1), both suitable for export and use in the glass manufacturing, foundry, coatings and electronics industries [3].
ASQ-GWW1 is a washed sand product that is presently available in stockpiles produced by the existing Urban washing plant, while ASQ-GWSC1 is a higher-grade product that can be produced following an upgrade of the washing plant to include spiral and classification circuits.
On 19 October 2020, two sea containers with 45 tonnes of bagged ASQ-GWW1 were loaded onto a ship at Fremantle port bound for Busan, South Korea. The company has received a 50 per cent part payment in advance for this trial shipment, with the balance to be paid upon presentation of the Bill of Lading in the next couple of days.
The price was agreed on a CFR basis with the silica sand sold at a premium to any on-going export bulk silica sand price to cover the additional costs of bagging and loading into a container.
The sand price, the identity of the customer and the end-use of the sand are considered to be commercially sensitive and confidential.
[1] Updated Silica Sand Term Sheet. ASX release 21 January 2019.
[2] Marella Road Silica Sand Deposit Maiden Resource. ASX Release 23 April 2019.
[3] Spiral and classifier testwork results for the M70/326 silica sand products. ASX Release 29 January 2019