Astral Resources’ Spargoville drilling brings extensive gold and hits up to 49.2g/t

• Astral’s 74-hole drilling program at Spargoville delivers strong gold intersections including 1m at 49.2g/t at Eagles Nest
• Results confirm potential for depth extensions of known mineralisation
• Success boosts confidence in Spargoville’s ability to deliver long-term growth for future Mandilla mining project

Special Report: Astral Resources’ confidence in its West Australian Spargoville project to deliver long-term growth for any future mining operation at Mandilla has been boosted by strong extensional drilling results.

Final assays from its inaugural 74-hole RC program totalling 11,744m identified depth extensions at the Eagles Nest deposit and the Trapdoor-Lindsays Reward gold trend, and a new fresh rock opportunity at depth below the 8500N palaeochannel deposit.

Notable results from Eagles Nest are a 3m intersection grading 16.9g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 71m including 1m at 49.2g/t from 71m and 9m at 5.16g/t Au from 105m including 1m at 33.6g/t from 107m.

Astral Resources (ASX:AAR) said the results confirmed the potential for extensions of the known mineralisation at depth, with a moderate northerly plunge to the gold mineralisation identified.

Over at Trapdoor-Lindsays Reward, drilling returned results topping up at 6m grading 3.45g/t Au from 63m including 1m at 11.2g/t from 64m.

Drilling at Trapdoor confirms that gold mineralisation extends to the south, while drilling to the east identified a parallel lode, which is a likely extension of the Huntsman deposit.

“While the primary motivation in acquiring Maximus Resources and the Spargoville project was to accommodate infrastructure requirements for the development of the adjacent Mandilla gold project, we have always believed the exploration potential to be high and are excited to be exploring the area,” AAR managing director Marc Ducler said.

“With extremely positive results from our inaugural 74-hole/11,740-metre RC program we only feel more confident that the Spargoville Project will deliver material longer term growth to any future Mandilla mining project.”

Spargoville gold project

Spargoville is about 25km southwest of Kambalda and about 20km west of Gold Fields’ +20Moz St Ives gold camp.

It sits in the Coolgardie Domain, on the western margin of the Kalgoorlie Terrain within the highly gold endowed Wiluna-Norseman Greenstone Belt.

The project comprises several advanced gold prospects and deposits such as Wattle Dam, Eagles Nest, Larkinville, Hilditch and 5B that collectively host a resource of 3Mt grading 1.4g/t, or 139,000oz of contained gold.

Notably, this resource is not included in the June 2025 pre-feasibility study for the flagship Mandilla project as Spargoville was only acquired just prior to completion of the study.

The Mandilla PFS outlined attractive economics for the production of 1.4Moz gold over a 19 year mine life.

Using a conservative gold price of $4250/oz, well below the current spot price of some $6111/oz, the project is forecast to generate over $2.8bn of free cash flow from revenue of $6bn.

Pre-tax net present value and internal rate of return were estimated at $1.4bn and 101% respectively, while payback on the Capex of $227m is expected in less than a year.

Ongoing exploration

AAR is currently continuing infill drilling at the cornerstone Theia deposit within its Mandilla project.

To date, about 74% of the 99-hole program totalling 10,000m has been completed.

A second reverse circulation rig is testing a target west of Theia.

Once this is completed, the rig will move to test the “bridge” between the Theia and Iris deposits as well as complete pre-collars in readiness for further diamond drilling.

The 3000m of diamond drilling targeting high-grade shear-hosted gold mineralisation within the Theia deposit and deep extensional tests on the eastern flank is planned to start in mid-October.

Following completion of the RC programs at Theia, one of the rigs will be relocated to Feysville to carry out a 17-hole program totalling about 3000m at the Kamperman deposit to test for extensions to the high-grade mineralisation in the footwall of the southern Kamperman lode.

It will also conduct a 30-hole regional drilling program to follow-up on historical aircore and RC gold anomalies.

This article was developed in collaboration with Astral Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.