Allup Silica has polished off a 26-hole maiden air-core drilling program at its wholly-owned Pink Bark project, 110km from the WA town of Esperance.
The 421-metre campaign was chasing silica sands and other potential rare earths, with holes drilled to an average depth of 16.5m. Management is now expecting results towards the end of next month.
Allup Silica managing director Andrew Haythorpe said: "We're thrilled to have completed the Pink Bark Maiden Air-core drilling program, which marks an important step forward in our efforts to explore the mineral potential of the area. This program was especially significant given the recent discoveries announced by listed public companies around and next to our tenements.”
In order to map potential mineralised zones in the target areas, the company is already compiling and reviewing recorded drill hole logging data. Pink Bark is part of its Esperance Sands exploration project and comprises two granted licenses – Pink Bark and Dune Buggy.
The project is within 20km of rail infrastructure in WA’s spectacular Goldfields-Esperance region and has already received heritage approval.
Pink Bark rounds off a quartet of the company’s strategic high-purity silica sand projects that it has amassed in WA in its quest to stake a claim as a prominent player in the silica sands sector. Key elements of the projects are location for ease of trucking to regional ports, high-purity silica and low levels of impurities, such as iron.
Allup has already defined a resource at its Sparkler project, which is about 200km from the port of Albany in WA’s Great Southern region. That project houses an inferred JORC mineral resource estimate of 73 million tonnes at an average grade of 96.6 per cent silica.
High-grade silica sands are largely utilised in the automobile, electronics, and photovoltaic, or solar panel, industries and they are also a critical component in the production of high-end glass.
Interestingly, demand for the bulk industrial material is gathering momentum with recent advances in the lithium-battery technology sector demonstrating that the addition of high-grade silica has the potential to boost the endurance of lithium-ion batteries.
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By Steve Kaless
