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"It's the most widely used commodity on the planet after air and water"

Sand is not sand is not sand, VRX Silica (ASX: VRX) MD Bruce Maluish explained to an investor event in Perth this week as the company released further testwork on its three silica sand deposits in Western Australia.

Staff reporter
 VRX's conceptual plant

VRX's conceptual plant

Maluish said the high-grade silica sand at Muchea, which has a resource of 191 million tonnes at 99.6% SiO2 in the ground, could produce the premium 99.9% ultra-clear product for the glassmaking industry.

"Muchea is one of the top five silica deposits in the whole world and none are this grade," he said.

The improved results from the third iteration of testwork helped determined the optimum products from Muchea, Arrowsmith North and Arrowsmith Central, 50km and 270km north of Perth respectively.

VRX, which changed its name from Ventnor Resources in December, has compiled a product catalogue for potential customers and will also use the test results to finalise the circuit design for its planned processing plant.

The company expects to make two products from each of Arrowsmith and Muchea for the glassmaking industry and four products from Arrowsmith for the foundry industry.

Maluish outlined increasing demand in the large volume silica sands industry, referring to economic growth in China and the call for premium glass - such as hail-resistant screens on solar panels - among the factors.

He also said there was decreasing supply as environmental restrictions curtailed river dredging in some countries.

"China in the three years since 2017 poured more concrete than the US did last century," he said.

"The resource is used by concrete guys and the glass guys can't use the concrete grade [silica sand product].

"It's the most widely used commodity on the planet after air and water."

He said Arrowsmith and Muchea both lay in a "sweet spot" about 25km inland from WA's coastline, with the resources virtually at surface, having rail access to the Geraldton port, on vacant crown land and with expansion potential.

The company is planning to start drilling in March to infill, extend and upgrade the resources at the three deposits.

VRX has also applied for mining leases and recently announced three non-binding letters of intent with distributors in the Asia-Pacific region covering an aggregate offtake of 590,000t of silica sand per annum.

The company added to its portfolio earlier this month, acquiring the Boyatup silica sand project near Esperance.

It also has the Warrawanda nickel exploration project in the Pilbara and a farm-in arrangement at its Biranup gold and base metals project in the Goldfields.

Maluish said the company had about A$1 million (US$0.7 million) in cash and would conduct a raising in the coming weeks to progress its projects.

Its shares were worth about A6c six months ago and were unchanged in today's trade at 12c, capitalising it at $44 million.

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