Second Annual Report on EL 31078 Dingo Hole Silica Project 15 January 2017 to 14 January 2018

Abstract

This project is targeting potentially high-purity quartz (HPQ) rock suitable for the production of silica. Depending on its purity, HPQ can have a wide range of uses ranging from window glass to solar panels, high-end electronics and green energy industries. Its market price is commensurate with the use and the amount of competition in that product category. The price difference can be ten fold or more. The top end of the range High Purity Quartz (HPQ) spectrum is defined relative to the IOTA standard and is a key strategic raw material for high tech globally. Dingo Hole contains outcropping white quartz rock which is potential HPQ. At the behest of consultants engaged by Verdant Minerals to oversee the work, specialist processing test work has been conducted at multiple overseas laboratories that specialise in HPQ. However, these laboratories are generally owned by competitors and are dedicated to their own company's product. As such, they are unfamiliar with Dingo Hole material, which is geologically and geochemically quite different from other commercial HPQ rock, and the laboratories are not set up to deal with it. Working with potential competitors, even through intermediary consultants, makes it difficult to ascertain exactly which results are the most reliable. While it appears that Dingo Hole silica is uniquely lower than its Australian, and many overseas, competitors in what are normally the penalty and problematic elements in HPQ, it is higher in others and there is little information on how to deal with these or if that is even possible. In particular, the amount of carbonate might be a problem at Dingo Hole, but it should be relatively easy to remove, unless it is tied up in the silica lattice. If it is not able to be removed, the silica will bubble when melted and be almost useless. Melt tests to date have been contradictory. During the reporting period, it was decided to repatriate all further work to an Australian University in the hope that they could develop a novel analytical and processing test program uniquely suitable to Dingo Hole HPQ.