Perpetual Resources (ASX:PEC) has jumped the final hurdle of its planned acquisition of the high-grade Beharra silica sand project in Western Australia with the grant of an exploration licence.

The company picked up an option in February this year to acquire the project from high profile mining personality Tolga Kumova, along with Peter Gianni and Robert Jewson.

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Perpetual now has shareholder approval and the necessary exploration licence needed to complete the acquisition.

Earlier this year, the company drilled four auger holes into the project which returned results of over 99 per cent silicon dioxide.

It depends on the degree of purity as to what silica can be used for.

For example, grades of over 99.5 per cent silicon dioxide are used in the manufacture of glass, including clear glass.

A purity of over 99.8 per cent is used to make semi-conductor fillers, LCD screens and optical glass.

And this is a rapidly growing market – particularly for glass made for solar panels and smart glass for electronic devices.

>> Read: Australia can now join the silica sands race thanks to a global supply crisis

Perpetual plans to start aircore drilling as soon as it has received approval so that it can define a maiden resource.

“The encouraging results returned by auger drilling across a large expanse has provided an increased impetus to rapidly develop the project,” managing director Rob Benussi told investors today.


 

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Certain shareholders of Aguia Resources (ASX:AGR) have dropped their push to have directors voted out after three directors and the chairman quit. The disgruntled shareholders raised concerns over the fact that the chairman, managing director and commercial officer were collectively paid nearly $2.2m in cash and received 4.15 million options in FY17 and FY18.

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