Feysville upside for Astral Resources with gold hits up to 100.7g/t

• Astral’s geotechnical drilling hits high-grade gold up to 100.7g/t outside planned mining areas
• Potential also noted to further expand Feysville resources, which stand at 196,000oz
• Multiple drilling programs underway while Mandilla DFS is progressing with focus on infrastructure and approvals

Special Report: Astral Resources has enhanced plans to mine its Feysville project near Kalgoorlie, WA, after geotechnical drilling returned high-grade assays of up to 100.7g/t within the optimised pit shell but outside the pre-feasibility study areas.

The geotechnical drilling, which gathered information about the rock properties proximal to the designed pit walls, is a necessary de-risking step to support pit optimisations and detailed mine designs for the Kamperman, Rogan Josh and Think Big deposits.

However, it also highlighted the opportunity to further increase resources after returning assays such as:

• 6.6m grading 2.42g/t gold from 22.7m, 4.7m at 30.6g/t from 31.8m and 2.1m at 32.8g/t from 123m including 0.6m at 100.7g/t in hole FYGT005 at Kamperman;
• 3.9m at 5.26g/t Au from 21.7m in FYGT009 at Rogan Josh; and
• 5.2m at 3.93g/t Au from 31.6m and 5.7m at 1.27g/t from 79.8m in FYGT014 at Think Big.

Feysville’s deposits are seen as strong sources of satellite ore for Astral Resources’ (ASX:AAR) flagship Mandilla project about 50km away.

Initial metallurgical work has returned exceptionally high recoveries of 98.1% at Kamperman and 91.5% at Rogan Josh using the same low-cost processing route proposed for Mandilla.

Managing director Marc Ducler said the high-grade results outside the areas contemplated in the PFS presented as pure upside for the project.

“Intercepts such as 4.7 metres at 30.6g/t Au and 2.1 metres at 32.8g/t Au at Kamperman are impressive high-grade intersections in any context,” he added.

“Occurring as they did within the optimised pit shell but outside the extents of the known gold mineralisation is even more beneficial as we look to grow the already significant opportunity that is emerging at Kamperman.

“We have consistently struck zones of high-grade gold within this deposit and still believe we have upside in localised high-grade shoots on which we are working on understanding.”

Feysville has a resource of 5Mt at 1.2g/t for 196,000oz of contained gold across the three deposits.

Other activity

At Mandilla, the company has completed a 19-hole reverse circulation drill program at the Iris deposit with assays pending.

It also completed a 24-hole program to sterilise the tailings storage facility and the south waste rock landform locations and/or extend Hestia to the northwest and southeast. Assays have been received and are being interpreted.

At Theia, AAR has started a 99-hole infill program totalling 10,000m to achieve a 12m by 12m drill spacing over an 80m by 120m area to a maximum hole depth of 150m within a portion of the stage 1 pit.

Theia will also be the subject of geotechnical drilling and 3000m of infill and extensional drilling targeting high-grade gold once a diamond rig arrives before the end of the current quarter.

More from AAR: Astral unveils golden opportunity with Mandilla PFS

Over at Spargoville, the company is carrying out a 90-hole program totalling 13,458m with 48 holes for 7819m at the Karramindie, 8500N, Trapdoor and Lindsays targets.

This will be followed by a 41-hole RC program on the behalf of the joint venture with KOMIR to investigate targets identified from a high-resolution geophysical survey completed across the JV tenure.

“The DFS is progressing well with the particular focus for this quarter on tendering the process and non-process Infrastructure DFS workstreams, DWER works approval submissions and the Native Title agreement over the Feysville tenement area,” Ducler said.

“Our campaign to unlock the potential of our broader regional landholding is also advancing, with assay results received from the preliminary 24-hole regional RC program at Feysville and regional drilling now underway at Spargoville – after which we will return to Feysville later this year.

“Astral has a history of adding new mineral resources at a discovery cost of less than $20 per ounce, a benchmark we aim to maintain as we pursue both a greenfield and extensional exploration focus across our tenement packages.”

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.