Astral shines as thick, high-grade gold hits from infill drilling raises confidence in Theia resource

• Infill drilling at Theia gold deposit hits broad zones of gold and confirms resource model accuracy
• Results include high-grade intercepts of up to 14m at 6.89g/t gold with a top result of 53g/t
• Astral grows confidence in progressing Theia deposit to production as soon as possible

Special Report: Infill drilling at Astral Resources’ flagship Theia deposit, part of the Mandilla gold project near Kalgoorlie, is continuing to build confidence.

Results are strongly aligned with the resource model, laying the groundwork for studies on bringing the 1.15Moz deposit into production.

Notable assays from the drilling being carried out on a close, 12m by 12m, drill density include:

• 14m grading 6.89g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 57m including 2m at 36.4g/t from 63m (AMRC052)
• 14m at 4.1g/t gold from 44m including 1m at 28g/t from 55m (AMRC040)
• 24m at 2.24g/t gold from 52m including 1m at 11.4g/t from 59m (AMRC063)
• 21m at 2.26g/t gold from 104m including 1m at 34.3g/t from 104m (AMRC045); and
• 1m at 53g/t gold from 38m, 24m at 0.98g/t from 48m, and 9m at 2.45g/t from 84m (AMRC049).

Results have been received for 46 holes totalling 5263m, just under 50% of the planned 99-hole program totalling 10,000m. To date, 75 holes totalling 8433m have been completed.

Astral Resources (ASX:AAR) notes these holes have regularly intersected broad zones of gold mineralisation, demonstrating a strong correlation to the current Theia resource of 33.3Mt at 1.1g/t, or 1.15Moz of contained gold.

“As the results for the Theia infill program are received, our confidence in the robustness of the mineral resource estimate continues to increase,” managing director Marc Ducler said.

“Whilst not to oversimplify this process, this latest batch of results consists of 29 holes, 18 of which returned a reported interval in excess of 10-gram x metres²! Of the four holes that did not intersect significant mineralisation, three were drill tests beyond the known extents of the deposit.

“Broad zones of high-grade gold mineralisation have been a stunning feature of this infill program so far and, with these results to hand, we are getting more confident and more excited about progressing the Theia deposit into production as soon as possible.

“We have an ideal starter pit location with high-grade mineralisation being defined to an almost grade control standard already.”

Mandilla project and drilling

The Mandilla project sits within the northern Widgiemooltha greenstone belt, about 70km south of Kalgoorlie.

This region is known for its gold endowment with world-class deposits such as the historic Super Pit in Kalgoorlie, Gold Field’s St Ives gold mine and Westgold Resources (ASX:WGX) Beta Hunt gold mine.

Mandilla is covered by existing mining leases that are not subject to any third‐party royalties and includes the Theia, Iris, Eos and Hestia deposits.

Gold mineralisation at Theia and Iris is comprised of structurally controlled quartz vein arrays and hydrothermal alteration close to the western margin of the Emu Rocks Granite and locally in contact with sediments of the Spargoville Group.

Significant NW to WNW-trending structures along the western flank of the project are considered important in localising gold mineralisation at Theia, which has a strike length of more than 1.6km.

A second sub-parallel structure hosts gold mineralisation at the Iris deposit, which has a mineralised footprint extending about 600m of strike.

Eos hosts a relatively shallow high-grade mineralised palaeochannel deposit that extends over 600m of strike while mineralisation has been delineated over ~800m of strike at the Hestia deposit.

Metallurgical testing carried out on each deposit has demonstrated high gravity recoverable gold, fast leach kinetics and exceptional overall gold recoveries with low reagent consumptions and coarse grinding.

AAR’s 10,000m drill program, which is being completed in three phases, is designed to infill an 80m by 120m area of the Stage 1 open pit contemplated in the Mandilla pre-feasibility study.

This program will provide sufficient drill density to upgrade resources to the very high confidence measured classification.

The Theia open pit is one of four pits at Mandilla that were included in the PFS with another three at the nearby Feysville project.

Ongoing and future work

Three rigs are currently operating at Mandilla with the first reverse circulation rig currently continuing the Theia infill drilling while the second RC rig is drilled pre-collars for the 3000m diamond drilling program.

The diamond drill rig has also started drilling holes under that program, which seeks to test an interpreted high-grade structure within the Theia deposit.

It will also carry out a series of deeper tests on the eastern flank of the deposit for a potential parallel mineralised structure.

Once the Theia infill drilling is completed, the rig will move to the Feysville project to undertake a 17-hole program totalling 3000m to test for extensions to the high-grade mineralisation in the footwall of the southern Kamperman lode.

This will be followed by a 30-hole regional program totalling 4000m to follow up areas of gold anomalism identified by historical aircore and RC drilling.

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.