Allup Silica: A new heavy mineral sands play that ticks all the right boxes
Allup Silica Managing Director Andrew Haythorpe on 6PR Bulls N' Bears Report
Listen to ASX-listed Allup Silica Managing Director Andrew Haythorpe talk to Matt Birney on the Bulls N’ Bears Report about Allup’s exquisitely located new mineral sands project that is littered with an “in-vogue” heavy mineral product.
TO LISTEN TO THE ALLUP SILICA AUDIO INTERVIEW - CLICK BELOW
Allup Silica’s flagship project is the Sparkler silica sand operation that sits between the ports of Albany and Bunbury with a 70 million-tonne silica sand resource suitable for the lucrative solar panel industry. The company’s Cabbage Spot and Pink Bark projects also contain an intriguing mix of silica, rare earths and kaolin suitable for ceramics and industrial uses. More recently however Allup added mineral sands to its mix after acquiring an advanced heavy minerals project east of Norseman known as the McLaren project.
RADIO INTERVIEW - TRANSCRIPT
Matt Birney - Welcome to Bulls N' Bears brought to you today by silica and mineral sands explorer, Allup Silica
Matt Birney - ASX code: APS
Matt Birney - I'm Matt Birney and I'm joined now by the Managing Director of Allup Silica, Andrew Haythorpe
Matt Birney - Hi Andrew
Andrew Haythorpe - Hello Matt, how are you?
Matt Birney - I'm good okay so Allup has the Sparkler silica sand operation that sits between the ports of Albany and Bunbury with a 70 million tonne silica sand resource suitable for the lucrative solar panel industry. The company’s Cabbage Spot and Pink Bark projects also contain an intriguing mix of silica, rare earths and kaolin suitable for ceramics and industrial uses. More recently however Allup added mineral sands to its mix after acquiring an advanced heavy minerals project east of Norseman known as the McLaren project.
Matt Birney - Okay Andrew I understand this project already has a resource on it. What is it?
Andrew Haythorpe - Matt it does, it's had over 600 drill holes drilled and there's a 280 million tonne resource of heavy minerals, with an inferred resource of 4.8 per cent HM so the grade's very attractive and even more attractive it's situated right next to Highway No. 1, a very brilliant sealed road so there's 13.5 million tonnes of heavy minerals contained in this deposit.
Matt Birney - Okay well let's get into those heavy minerals, what are they and which one do you consider to be the key?
Andrew Haythorpe - Well like most heavy mineral sand deposit, it has rutile, zircon and ilmenite in particular though this one is very ilmenite rich, which actually makes it very simple from an operator point of view and economics and payback perspective.
Matt Birney - What's ilmenite typically used for? Who buys it and how much does it sell for?
Andrew Haythorpe - Well ilmenite-like rutile is one of the key titanium dioxide feedstocks and titanium dioxide is used in paints and coatings, paper. Titanium dioxide is the sparkly bit that makes white really white when you buy consumer products.
Matt Birney - What does it typically sell for?
Andrew Haythorpe - Well ilmenite's price has risen considerably over the last 12, 10 or 12 years. Currently, according to some estimates, at least around $350 to $370 US a tonne, into China now which is up substantially from previous.
Matt Birney - Can this resource be expanded or is it pretty much closed off?
Andrew Haythorpe - No the resource has just had the main obvious deposit drilled out, just near the highway but there's about five or six other ilmenite occurrences which need to be drilled down to basement at 35 meters depth, just to see what's underneath the other ilmenite occurrences.
Matt Birney - How much money has been spent on this thing to date and what advantages, if any, have you already identified in and around the project that might lend themselves to low-cost mining?
Andrew Haythorpe - Well the vendors claim there's been something like $13 million spent on the project since 2009 and from the data and the excellent information that we've seen, both geologically and metallurgically, that could be absolutely true. The advantage of the project are really brilliant logistics, it's 3 and a half / 4 hours drive to Esperance Port which only recently freed up capacity of some 7 million tonnes per annum so Esperance Ports now open for business. We're right next to Highway 1, it should be a very easy straightforward trucking operation to the port for the mineral sand product and we think that project's got excellent potential economics
Matt Birney - Andrew Haythorpe from Allup Silica
Matt Birney - Thanks for joining me on Bulls N' Bears and remember we're only here to give you information, not advice, which you should of course seek independently.
Matt Birney - I'm Matt Birney and this is Bulls N' Bears.
Outro - For more public company interviews go to the money page on the 6PR, 2GB, 3AW and 4BC websites and click the public companies tab
Kommentare