Asra set for resource upgrade after new drill results

Asra Minerals, formerly Torian Resources, has announced new high-grade gold hits at its Mt Stirling project near Leonora in WA, setting the scene for an anticipated resource upgrade, expected later this month.

The company’s latest drill campaign unearthed mineralisation at depth, including 6 metres at 5.38 grams per tonne gold from 226m and 3m going 10.15 g/t from 228m which was housed within the 6m hit.

Another 4m intersection gave up 1.26 g/t from 206m and included a higher-grade 1m section grading 23.82 g/t from 230m.

Amongst the better shallow hits was a 21m intersection going 1.09 g/t from 42m and 3m grading 2.12 g/t from 37m including a metre intersection that came in at 5.28 g/t gold.

Asra Minerals Executive Director Peretz Schapiro said:“The fact that most holes have returned significant intersections throughout this campaign is a testament to the success of our exploration program and drill targeting.”

Further assay results are expected in the near future, in time to be included in the company’s soon-to-be released and highly anticipated resource upgrade.

The Mt Stirling project, comprising some 74 square kilometres of tenure, is located about 20km north of Leonora and currently has a JORC-compliant estimate of 118,400 gold ounces.

The MS-Viserion prospect, in the project’s north, received the most attention in the latest campaign with two-thirds of the RC metres drilled.

 MS-Viserion already speaks for 102,000 of the company’s current 118,000 JORC resource.

It is located along the Ursus Fault, which also boasts numerous gold prospects further to the south belonging to large gold producer Red 5.

The $880 million market capped Red 5 owns the King of the Hills gold mine, 8km to the southeast of the Mt Stirling Project.   

Asra’s latest encouraging finds extend the project’s mineralisation beyond its previous resource boundaries and will help boost the company’s resources upgrade, expected imminently.

Last year, Asra purchased the underlying pastoral station at Mt Stirling, known as the Tarmoola Station, whose 170,000-plus hectares boasts numerous mining and exploration leases — including most of the Mt Stirling project.

The purchase came with a mining services business and almost $1 million of equipment, rights to carbon credits and a 20-person camp. One of the company’s stated motives for the acquisition was to fast track further exploration and a potential mining operation.

Following promising discoveries of rare earth and critical minerals including cobalt and scandium earlier this year, Asra has opened up a second front at its Mt Stirling gold project that now looks set to become a multi-mineral play.

Immediately to the South West of its two major gold discoveries, Asra unearthed heavy rare earth mineralisation back in January at its Wishbone and Yttria prospects in addition to the cobalt and scandium traces.

Heavy rare earth elements are critical to many new technologies and securing reliable supplies is seen as a strategic imperative – particularly for the burgeoning electric vehicle industry that uses rare earths in the industrial magnets that make up part of an electric motor. They  include dysprosium, terbium, europium, neodymium and yttrium and all are reported in Asra’s Yttria mineralisation.

Heavy rare earths such as dysprosium in particular are very hard to find and have traditionally only been mined in a handful of Chinese mines.

Scandium is a light, soft metal found in rare-earth ores. It is used in some aluminium alloys and is generally considered to be scarce and expensive. Prices of scandium metal can run into thousands of dollars a kilogram.

Asra has positioned itself nicely with both a traditional gold play that doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon and a serious blue sky opportunity courtesy of its recent discovery of rare and critical minerals.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au