TSX-V-listed silica developer Homerun Resources has commissioned one of Europe’s most respected independent silica processing laboratories, Dorfner Anzaplan, to perform additional chemical leaching testwork on silica and samples from the company’s Santa Maria Eterna flagship deposit, in Brazil.

Homerun has tasked Dorfner Anzaplan with additional testwork ahead of the company making a capital expenditure estimation for a high-purity silica purification plant development in Belmonte.

Anchored by the Santa Maria Eterna high-purity low-iron silica resource in Bahia, Brazil, Homerun aims to transform raw silica into essential products and technologies that accelerate clean power adoption and deliver durable shareholder value.

Once Dorfner Anzaplan completes the latest testwork, it will proceed directly to process design and capital expenditure estimation for the Belmonte silica purification plant, targeting the highest purity grades possible. The additional testwork targets a simplified process route to minimise operational expenditure and streamline plant operations relative to prior routes having been determined.

Homerun previously asked Dorfner Anzaplan to perform a comprehensive multi-process metallurgical test programme on 25 kg of raw silica sand, with the aim having been to evaluate multiple purification routes capable of achieving 99.99% silicon dioxide purity.

Homerun wants shareholders to know that the company’s latest announcement is a planned continuation of a body of work that is among the most technically advanced and thoroughly validated in the junior mining sector.

With multiple purification routes having been validated, it confirms that the Santa Maria Eterna deposit can achieve premium market specifications, however, the work now is to determine the most optimal and cost-effective processing route.

This work constitutes Phase 2 of Homerun’s three-phase integrated purification platform. All three phases are being advanced concurrently, with finance parties being actively engaged throughout the process.

Homerun CEO and director Brian Leeners says Dorfner Anzaplan’s work represents some of the most important technical validation work that has been done in Homerun’s history. “The purification routes announced in December were exceptional by any global benchmark, however, we did not rush to capital expenditure estimates because we saw an opportunity to do it better.

“The additional leaching testwork we are commissioning today is targeted, purposeful, and designed to optimise the operating economics of our future Phase 2 plant before we lock in the design.

“We are advancing all three phases of our purification platform simultaneously, our finance partners are deeply engaged, and the foundation laid by our bankable feasibility study gives us a significant head start. We look forward to delivering the full capital expenditure package and moving this project forward,” Leeners concludes.