Australian Silica Quartz Group Ltd (ASQ) holds a portfolio of kaolin, hard rock quartz, silica sand, gold and bauxite projects in Western Australia and Queensland.
Through its wholly owned subsidiary Australian Kaolin Pty Ltd (AKL), ASQ holds the White Swan Kaolin Project near Esperance, Western Australia. White Swan hosts an Inferred Kaolin Mineral Resource Estimate of 47 million tonnes of kaolin, reported in accordance with the JORC Code (2012 Edition), and has received Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration approval for a 250,000 tonne per annum, free-dig, near-surface, open pit, direct shipping ore (DSO) mining operation – a key milestone on the path to ASQ becoming a significant Australian exporter of kaolin.
ASQ also holds a number of hard rock quartz and high grade silica sand projects in various stages of development. These include the hard rock quartz projects Mt Eliza (Quartz Hill), Pandanus Creek (White Springs), Douglas Range and the Gilbert Ranges MGSi quartz project in Queensland, Seabrook in Western Australia, and the silica sand projects at Gingin and Albany in Western Australia. The Company is working to further develop and consolidate these projects to support a long-term, sustainable export business in silica quartz products. Additionally ASQ is working to add value to the Company’s Quartz resources and is progressing a Research and Development program using internally developed innovative processing methodologies aimed at producing ultra high purity quartz to IOTA standard (>99.997% SiO2).
ASQ has a number of tenements overlying portions of the Koolyanobbing Shear Zone and Koolyanobbing Greenstone Belt in Western Australia, forming the Koolyanobbing Metals Project, prospective for gold, nickel, lithium and copper. The Company is looking for suitably qualified joint venture partners to continue the exploration and evaluation of the project .
ASQ was originally established with a substantial tenement holding in Western Australia to develop new bauxite supply for the global alumina/aluminium industry and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in October 2007. The Darling Range in the south-west of Western Australia is the world's largest bauxite mining and alumina refining region, producing around 20% of the world's alumina. The Company retains royalty rights over the Felicitas and Fortuna bauxite resources and has a joint venture with HD Mining & Investments Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shandong Bureau No.1 Institute for Prospecting of Geology & Minerals, to develop further bauxite projects in the region.
