Special Report: The project is in the northern Widgiemooltha greenstone belt, approximately 70km south of the significant mining centre of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, and in an area host to world-class deposits such as Northern Star Resources’ (ASX:NST) Golden Mile Super Pit, Gold Field’s St Ives mine and Westgold Resources’ (ASX:WGX) Beta Hunt mine.

To date, metallurgical testing undertaken on each of the main deposits at Mandilla – Theia, Iris, Eos and Hestia – has demonstrated high gravity recoverable gold, fast leach kinetics and exceptional overall gold recoveries with low reagent consumptions and coarse grinding.

The scoping study was based on a standalone project comprising three open pit mines feeding a 2.5Mtpa processing facility, producing 80 to 100koz per year, based on a gold price of A$2,750/oz. Given the recent exploration success at Kamperman (Feysville Gold Project) and the strong gold price environment the pre-feasibility is likely to be much bigger.

Best assays from the infill drilling program include:

  • 8m at 1.82g/t gold from 29m and 33m at 1.82g/t gold from 64m, including 2m at 25.9g/t gold from 90m (MDRC886)
  • 10m at 5.33g/t gold from 38m including 1m at 37.5g/t gold from 43m (MDRC908)
  • 6m at 1.74g/t gold from 70m and 18m at 2.54g/t gold from 84m including 1m at 24.8g/t gold from 93m (MDRC906)
  • 1m at 223g/t gold from 15m (MDRCD918)
  • 1m at 21.3g/t gold from 12m and 22m at 0.53g/t gold from 60m (MDRC869).

“The recent 70-hole/6,512 metre in-fill drill program at Theia was designed to ensure that the Stage 1 and Stage 2 pits, as contemplated in the Mandilla scoping study, had the necessary drill density to satisfy the requirement for the mineral resources in this area to be classified as indicated,” Astral Resources (ASX:AAR) managing director Marc Ducler said.

“The assay results from this program will support that outcome.”

A diamond drill (DD) rig will also be mobilised this quarter to complete four deep infill holes ahead of an update to the Theia resource estimate, which is expected in the March Quarter, 2025. Read More