Stockhead Investor: Astral strengthens Mandilla development story with latest Theia gold hits

Astral Resources has delivered a series of significant gold intercepts from in-fill drilling at its cornerstone Theia deposit, within the broader Mandilla gold project in WA.

Management said the latest results from 56 RC holes support the planned conversion of the Stage 1 open pit resource inventory into the higher-confidence measured category.

It believes the intercepts further de-risk the proposed initial development at Theia, which is expected to underpin the early years production at Mandilla.

New results were headlined by a 31m strike grading 3.03g/t Au from 12m, including a richer 1m section at 59.8g/t Au from 32m.

Another hole returned 19m at 2.70g/t Au from 41m, 6m at 1.01g/t Au from 65m, and 7m at 1.69g/t Au from 85m.

A third hole pierced 10m at 1.28g/t Au from 26m and 11m at 3.93g/t Au from 106m.

Notable gold intercepts were returned across an assortment of other holes, featuring wide mineralised zones with high-grade shoots.

The average grade of all intercepts in the latest results was 1.24g/t Au, well above the current grade for the proposed Stage 1 pit.

Astral Resources (ASX:AAR) said they validate its geological and mineral resource models for Theia.

“These results continue to demonstrate the consistency of gold mineralisation within the Stage 1 pit and provide further confidence in both our geological model and the planned conversion of this inventory to the measured mineral resource category,” noted Astral managing director Marc Ducler.

“As we anticipated, drilling has continued to delineate broad intercepts of gold mineralisation containing very high-grade shoots within the coherent zones of quartz-sulphide veining, typical of the intense alteration we now know to be ubiquitous with gold mineralisation within the host granite at Theia.”

Full article: https://stockhead.com.au/resources/astral-strengthens-mandilla-development-story-with-latest-theia-gold-hits/