Silica Sand Processing Plant Design and Costs
ASX Announcement 27 March 2019
Highlights:
- Process circuit design and engineering completed
- Plant designed for optimum utilisation
- Processing plant cost estimated at $18m per plant
- Total capex (including plant feeder and water supply per plant) estimated at $25m per plant
- BFS for Arrowsmith and Muchea Projects expected in September 2019 Quarter
VRX Silica Limited (VRX or Company) (ASX: VRX) has received an independent process design, engineering and cost estimate for a processing plant for its Arrowsmith Silica Sand Projects (Arrowsmith), located 270km north of Perth, and its Muchea Silica Sand Project (Muchea), located 50km north of Perth.
The independent processing testwork, process circuit design and engineering has been undertaken by CDE Global, a global leader in the construction of sand mining wet processing plants.
Plant Design and Costs
The plant design (see Figure 1) incorporates features to ensure high utilisation and performance with duplicated critical pumps and variable speed drives on all pumps.
Three iterations of testwork have been carried out on the Arrowsmith and Muchea projects. Significantly, the attritioning cycle has been demonstrated to be particularly effective in removing impurities from the quartz grains.
Attritioning is an agitated high density slurry which allows for a high energy interaction of grains rubbing on grains which liberates attached fine particles and reduces particle size by breakage on corners and grain boundaries. The process is repeated twice in VRX’s process circuit design.
Testwork completed by VRX has confirmed that the plant design for the production of a high purity silica sand product suitable for the glass-making industry is the same for each of VRX’s three projects (Arrowsmith North and Arrowsmith Central and Muchea). The process flow sheet for each plant is described below.
CDE Global has provided VRX with a cost estimate for a 2 million tonne per annum (Mtpa) processing plant which, due to its modular nature, is a detailed proposal and accurate to ±15% in pricing. Table 1 sets out a summary of this cost estimate.
Table 1: Summary of quote details for processing plant (exchange rate of 1GBP = 1.87AUD)
VRX estimates costs for plant feeder, water supply and contingency will increase the total capital cost for a 2 Mtpa processing plant to approximately A$25 million.
Further testwork is underway to finalise the requirements for the magnetic separation component (WHIMS). This is not anticipated to materially affect the costs.
Drilling at Muchea and Arrowsmith Silica Sand Projects
ASX Announcement 13 March 2019
Highlights:
- Commencement of drill programs on three Company Silica Sand Projects
- Program to increase Resources and JORC confidence at Arrowsmith North and Central and Muchea
VRX Silica Limited (VRX Silica or Company) (ASX: VRX) is pleased to announce it has commenced drilling at three of its project areas at the North and Central Arrowsmith Silica Sand Projects (Arrowsmith), located 270km north of Perth, WA, and its Muchea Silica Sand Project (Muchea), 50km north of Perth.
The aircore drilling program at the Arrowsmith projects follow the Company’s initial shallow hand auger drilling. The drill program will be closer spaced and deeper than the initial work and is expected to increase the tonnage of sand and also the JORC confidence within the Mining Lease applications at both Arrowsmith project areas.
The program at the Muchea project will be closer spaced than the original aircore drilling and will both increase the tonnage within the area of Indicated Resource and also increase the JORC confidence within the area of the recently applied for Mining Lease.
Drilling will be undertaken with a Landcruiser mounted Mantis aircore drill rig which is capable of deeper drill holes than those previously drilled by hand auger.
The planned drill program consists of a total of 189 holes for 1,726 metres at Arrowsmith and 57 holes at Muchea for 887 metres and take approximately two weeks to complete.
Assays are expected to be available for new Resource estimations 3- 4 weeks after completion of drilling.
VRX Silica Managing Director Bruce Maluish said: “These drill programs follow on from the initial drilling and Resource estimates with results from our extensive testwork programs justifying our investment to increase these Resources and our confidence level to estimate Reserves.”
Testwork results and the catalogue of our potential products were announced 26 February 2019.
“Results from these drill programs will add substantial value to our inventory and confirm our previous assumptions about the extent and quality of our silica sand projects,” said Maluish.
Drilling Programs
Aircore drilling is underway on the Company’s three silica sand deposits at Muchea, and Arrowsmith North and Central, with planned drilling set out in Table 1.
Table 1: Planned Aircore Drilling
This drilling is planned to extend and upgrade the current dataset that has been used to estimate the Company’s Silica Sand Resources as set out in Table 2.
Table 2: Summary of Silica Sand Mineral Resources*
Muchea
The plan below shows the location of the planned drilling. This area is the most likely starting area for mining and the tight 50m spacing is intended to give a high confidence ahead of mining.
High Purity Quartz at Warrawanda
Highlights:
- Rock chip samples +99.95% SiO2;
- Multiple targets;
- Drilling planned mid-2019.
VRX Silica Limited (VRX Silica or Company) (ASX: VRX) is pleased to announce the results of rock chip samples from its Warrawanda Project, located, 40kms south of Newman, WA.
The Company has held the Warrawanda Project since listing in 2011 (as Ventnor Resources Ltd) with its primary focus on the nickel prospectivity on a massive ultramafic intrusion which runs east-west across the tenements.
Since the Company has changed direction to supply the Silica Sand market the tenement was re-evaluated to examine the quartz outcrops which dot the landscape in the granites adjoining the ultra-mafic intrusion.
Three outcrops have been initially sampled with outstanding results at each with the potential to produce a High Purity Quartz (HPQ) product.
VRX Silica Managing Director Bruce Maluish said: “This is potentially yet another product we can supply in to the Silica market.”
“The HPQ market is much smaller and industry specific than the silica sand market for glassmaking but it is significantly higher value with prices up to US$300 per tonne for crushed and bagged HPQ,” said Maluish.
High purity quartz is a special category of silica and used in high added value products, particularly optical fibres, LED lights, silicon manufactured for use in the electronics industry, photovoltaic cells and high tech glass.
There is significant growth in the production of LED lights and a high market demand for HPQ.
The Warrawanda HPQ Project is close to the town of Newman and immediately adjacent to Great Northern Highway which connects to Fremantle with ample opportunity for backloads from trucks servicing the Pilbara
The Company will conduct a diamond drill program to test the extent and quality of the deposits mid-year following an Aboriginal Heritage survey.
Warrawanda Location Plan
Latest Testwork and Product Catalogues from Arrowsmith and Muchea
ASX Announcement 26 February 2019
Highlights:
- Improved results from all projects with grades reaching:
- Muchea: +99.9% SiO2 (<80ppm Fe2O3)
- Arrowsmith North: 99.7% SiO2
- Arrowsmith Central: 99.6% SiO2.
- Expanded product catalogue including:
- High-Grade products used for ultra-clear glass from Muchea;
- Glassmaking products from Arrowsmith and Muchea;
- Foundry sand products from Arrowsmith.
- Preferred circuit design established.
- Process plant engineering to be completed March 2019.
- In-fill drilling planned for March 2019.
VRX Silica Limited (VRX Silica or Company) (ASX: VRX) is pleased to announce the results from its testwork program to produce silica sand products from its Arrowsmith Silica Sand Project, located 270km north of Perth, WA, and its Muchea Silica Sand Project, 50km north of Perth.
The Company has completed its third iteration of testwork on each of its projects: Arrowsmith North, Arrowsmith Central and Muchea Silica Sand Projects.
VRX Silica Managing Director Bruce Maluish said: “The results from this testwork are a culmination of three iterations during the past year to both determine the optimum products from each of the projects and to contribute to the final circuit design.”
“There are two products from each of Arrowsmith and Muchea for the glassmaking industry, and four products from Arrowsmith for the foundry industry,” said Maluish.
A catalogue has now been produced and forwarded to our potential customers.
Based on this testwork, the circuit design for the processing plant has been finalised, while the engineering work by CDE Global (CDE) is nearing completion.
The engineering works include:
- Concept flow sheets (mass and water balance);
- Equipment list (containing power demand);
- Site Drawings;
- Capex Estimate +/- 15%;
- Concept Construction and Installation schedules.
