Part of the Feysville project, the prospect sits in the Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone Belt, just kilometres south of Northen Star Resources’ (ASX:NST) Super Pit on the Golden Mile, Gold Fields’ St Ives gold mine and Westgold Resources’ (ASX:WGX) Beta Hunt gold mine.

Feysville already boasts a resource of 3Mt at 1.3g/t gold for 116,000oz contained gold at the Think Big deposit, a potential satellite ore source for the explorer’s flagship Mandilla gold project.

But Astral Resources (ASX:AAR) says the latest holes at Kamperman have added upside to the project, with other results including 12m at 7.26g/t from 23m including 1m at 16.5g/t from 24m and 1m at 39.7g/t from 27m and, further down-hole, 25m at 24.3g/t from 68m – including 1m at 28g/t from 69m, as well as the aforementioned 3m at 177g/t from 74m (FRC378).

A previous hole at FRC243 returned 2m at 188g/t from 77m, indicating the high grade potential close to surface at Kamperman.

The recent drilling also returned 12m at 1.96g/t from 20m and 5m at 1.25g/t from 58m (FRC377), and further assay results from Kamperman remain pending.

Unlocking a high-grade opportunity

The company says the results from RC holes FRC377 and FRC378 are encouraging, and diamond drilling is planned in this area to better understand the orientation of the very high-grade zone in hole FRC378.

“These latest holes at Kamperman continue to surprise to the upside – showing that there is a potentially very significant high-grade opportunity here that we are yet to unlock,” AAR managing director Marc Ducler said.

“Previously, FRC243 returned a very high-grade zone of two metres at 188g/t gold from 77 metres, 40 metres to the north-east.

“FRC378 has now returned another very high-grade zone of three metres at 177g/t gold from 74 metres.”

These high-grade hits have given Astral the confidence to keep testing for the orientation of the zone despite previous diamond drilling being unable to establish it.

“Given the potential size of the prize, additional work is warranted,” Ducler said.

“The extensional drilling completed to the north and north-east has continued to intersect gold mineralisation, albeit the gold grades were of a lower tenor than expected given the quantum of quartz and sulphides logged in the RC chips.

“Additional RC drilling is planned given the proximity to a northeast trending fault which is potentially controlling the mineralisation or offsetting it.

“It is becoming clear that Kamperman hosts multiple potential controlling structures that warrant further investigation, as does Feysville as a whole.” 

Looking forwards

The RC rig is currently undertaking a program of several drill holes at Mandilla to determine dewatering requirements as part of the hydrogeological work program for the pre-feasibility study.

“The in-fill RC program at Iris is 50% complete. The program is now on hold for approximately three weeks while groundwater testing is undertaken with the RC rig,” Ducler said.

“Once the groundwater program is complete, RC drilling will resume at Iris and Eos.

“Meanwhile, diamond drilling is now underway at Theia with four deep in-fill holes for 1600m planned.

“These holes are designed to provide the level of confidence required to warrant an upgrade of the inferred resources at depth into the indicated resource category.”

The company expects to report an update to the Theia resource in the March Quarter of 2025.