Corella Resources (ASX:CR9) has kicked off its new life as a kaolin and silica explorer with the start of resource and metallurgical drilling at the Tampu kaolin project near Beacon, Western Australia.
This comes less than two weeks from its return to trading on the ASX after closing a $5m public offer, more than two years after its previous incarnation Sintech Limited was suspended.
The 2,000m aircore drilling program at Tampu is aimed at underpinning a maiden resource estimate and to produce samples for metallurgical test work and end user verification.
Already, the company’s kaolin exploration project is off to a good start with drill holes intersecting significant intervals of bright white kaolin at shallow depths that are consistent with historical drill holes.
Managing director Tony Cormack noted that he was “extremely pleased” with the results to date given that the company was re-instated to official quotation just 12 days ago.
“We are confident, based on the historic results that we will be delivering some excellent assay results over the next few months,” he added.
Kaolin exploration
The wholly-owned Tampu project covers more than 81sqkm about 275km northeast of Perth.
Notably, it is near the town and rail siding of Beacon and is less than 3km from bitumen road access, mobile network coverage and unused infrastructure.
Tampu has had two historical and one modern phase of exploration drilling and metallurgical programs that has confirmed its potential to host significant bright white kaolin mineralisation with very low levels of contaminants.
However, further drilling and metallurgical test-work will be required to achieve a JORC compliant resource.
Other projects
Besides Tampu, Corella also holds the Wiltshire and Kalannie kaolin projects as well as the Bonnie Rock Silica project.
Wiltshire is adjacent to Blue Diamond’s Wenmillia Dam kaolin deposit north of Mullewa.
Bright white kaolin is known to extend to the south and west of Wenmillia Dam along exposures in Wenmillia Creek towards the Wiltshire project.
Kalannie was identified by a single sample by the Geological Survey of Western Australia that shows high purity kaolin with low levels of contaminant elements.
Meanwhile, previous exploration at Bonnie Rock has identified a prominent quartz vein that shows favourable thermal stability and thermal strength values suitable for the production of silicon metal.