Stockhead Investor: Astral Resources cracks open Mandilla riches with high-grade Theia gold hits

Astral Resources says infill drilling at its Theia deposit – part of the Mandilla project in WA – has confirmed multiple zones of high-grade gold mineralisation and a new target to the west.

The project includes the Theia, Iris, Eos and Hestia deposits and sits in a region that hosts world-class deposits such as the Super Pit in Kalgoorlie, owned by Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST), the St Ives Gold Mine owned by Gold Fields, and the Beta Hunt Gold Mine owned by Westgold Resources (ASX:WGX).

Back in April, Astral Resources (ASX:AAR) announced a mineral resource estimate of 42Mt at 1.1g/t gold for 1.43Moz of contained gold for the Mandilla project.

A June PFS detailed a standalone project comprising seven open pit mines including four at Mandilla (Theia, Hestia, Eos and Iris), and three at Feysville (Kamperman, Think Big and Rogan Josh) feeding a 2.75Mtpa processing facility, producing 95,000oz per year for the first 12 years.

It subsequently signed up Mineral Mining Services as a project development partner for Think Big, potentially generating cash flow to fund the larger scale development at Mandilla.

Work has since been ongoing to upgrade the confidence level of the resource heading into a DFS.

Latest assays for 20 holes of a 99-hole RC program have returned best results including:

• 22m at 1.65g/t gold from 44m, 19m at 3.53g/t gold from 73m, incl. 1m at 53.2g/t gold from 81m and 18m at 6.67g/t gold from 100m, incl. 1m at 97.5g/t gold from 105m

• 21m at 1.16g/t gold from 41m, 39m at 2.98g/t gold from 66m, incl. 1m at 10.4g/t gold from 78m, 1m at 15.5g/t gold from 83m, 1m at 13.2g/t gold from 95m and 1m at 21.1g/t gold from 102m

• 25m at 3.20g/t gold from 44m incl. 1m at 17.0g/t gold from 52m, 1m at 43.6g/t gold from 64m

• 27m at 3.23g/t gold from 37m incl. 1m at 35.3g/t gold from 51m

• 33m at 2.29g/t gold from 34m, incl. 1m at 12.0g/t gold from 38m, 1m at 11.5g/t gold from 64m; and

• 19m at 3.77g/t gold from 89m incl. 1m at 31.6g/t gold from 92m, 11m at 1.84g/t gold from 114m.

Drilling immediately west of Theia intersected an interpreted steeply-dipping gold mineralised structure in two holes, which may potentially represent a controlling structure to the Mandilla mineralisation.

As soon as the extensional RC drilling program currently being undertaken at the Kamperman deposit within the Feysville gold project is completed, the rig will be re-located to Mandilla to further test this newly discovered structure.

Full article: https://stockhead.com.au/resources/astral-resources-cracks-open-mandilla-riches-with-high-grade-theia-gold-hits/