Asra land grab extends WA gold and rare earths play

Explorer Asra Minerals has amassed an extra 2456 hectares of prime real estate at its flagship Mt Stirling multi-commodity project in the heart of Western Australia’s eastern Goldfields. The 13 freshly minted tenements abut Mt Stirling’s southern block and take in a further 4km strike of the prospective Arktos Fault that hosts the company’s emerging Yttria and Wishbone rare earths and critical minerals discoveries.

Asra’s Mt Stirling project is within cooee of Red 5’s developing 4.1-million-ounce King of the Hills gold project. The region has produced about 14 million ounces of gold from mines such as Tower Hills, Sons of Gwalia, Thunderbox, Harbour Lights and Gwalia in the fertile gold district.

The Mt Stirling gold project comprises two separate adjoining blocks – the Stirling Block to the north and the Diorite Block to the south.

Asra has already defined a solid 102,000 ounce resource at its Mt Stirling gold deposit in the Stirling Block. Its nearby Stirling Well deposit, with 16,000 ounces of contained gold, is also in the Stirling Block.

The southern half of the project takes in the historic rich Diorite King gold mine where old timers eked out 1134 tonnes of ore that coughed up a bonanza grade averaging 73 g/t to produce 2800 ounces of gold between 1897 to 1922.

Several other intriguing gold prospects, including Estera, Diorite East and Little Wonder are also scattered throughout Mt Stirling’s southern block.

Asra’s 26,000m exploration drilling drive last year kicked up a clutch of encouraging hits such as 2m intercept going 12.18 g/t gold from just 20m depth, including 1m at 14.67 g/t gold at the Unexpected Mine Workings prospect near Estera.

Other hits in the Diorite Block include 4m at 4.95 g/t gold from 52m, 4m at 1.41 g/t gold from 64m and 2m at 1.11 g/t gold from 19m.

Interestingly, the company says the new tenure encompasses the regionally significant Joker Fault that is associated with the nearby Sons of Gwalia gold mineralisation.

Whilst the gold targets are plentiful and compelling, it’s Asra’s groundbreaking rare earths and critical minerals discoveries in the southern block at Yttria and Wishbone that has pulses quickening.

According to the company, its previous drilling program unveiled a suite of anomalous yttrium clusters over a 5.2km strike length through portable XRF analysis. Importantly, yttrium is a pathfinder element for heavier rare earth elements and the discovery means the company could have more of the material at Mt Stirling than originally thought.

The company's Yttria prospect holds all five of the most critical and in- demand rare earth elements including the rarer dysprosium, terbium, europium, neodymium and yttrium.

The operation is also distinguished by a high-ratio of heavy rare earths to total rare earths and a lack of radioactivity – ingredients that could potentially set it apart in the marketplace.

With approvals in place for a 50,000m drilling blitz, Asra says the proposed campaign will include resource-definition drilling at its the Yttria heavy rare earths prospect, en-route to a maiden mineral resource estimate at the target.

Additionally, drilling is planned to define and extend the mineralisation at its nearby Wishbone prospect, extend the mineralisation between Yttria and Wishbone and sniff out regional-scale rare earths and critical mineral accumulations that are thought to be speckled around the project’s Arktos fault.

Importantly, Asra’s latest land grab adds another 4km of strike length of the Arktos fault, providing plenty of upside for new discoveries.

Asra is at the starting gate of its next big push at its Mt Stirling multi-commodity project. With a patch of prospective dirt added to its triple play project, the Perth-based explorer can be expected to produce a steady flow of news for some time yet.

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