Diatreme Resources has lifted the mineral resource estimate for the Si2 deposit within its Northern Silica Project from 272.5Mt to 301.5Mt.

It said the update materially expanded the Si2 resource base and, importantly, pointed to mineralisation further toward the south east of the existing principal deposit.

“This updated resource is another meaningful step forward for the Northern Silica Project,” Diatreme Resources (ASX:DRX) chief executive officer Neil McIntyre said.

“Not only have we materially expanded the Si2 resource base, but we’ve also confirmed that mineralisation extends further towards the south-east.

“Just as importantly, we’ve laid the groundwork for stage-wise predictive processing studies that we expect will be a real differentiator when it comes to optimising and de-risking the initial mine schedule, which will allow Diatreme to tailor product to exacting customer requirements.

“This only further strengthens our strategy for the Northern Silica Project to become a multi-generational critical minerals project for Queensland, the communities we operate in and importantly our shareholders.”

Related: Drill results back Diatreme vision for multiple sites

The company is continuing work across mining, processing, infrastructure and economic workstreams for a prefeasibility study, which is in final drafting.

Diatreme will also continue technical work at the Casuarina deposit, including drilling, sampling, geological logging and analytical programs designed to build the dataset required to support a future mineral resource estimate.