Asra picks experienced geologist as new MD

West Perth-based Asra Minerals, formerly Torian Resources has appointed experienced geologist and mining executive Rob Longley as its new Managing Director.

The Board of the gold and rare earths explorer says it is delighted to have secured Longley’s services, noting his appointment will add strong geological focus and strategic minerals direction for the company’s emerging rare earth elements, or “REE” scandium, cobalt and gold assets at its flagship Mt Stirling project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields.

Asra Minerals Chairman, Paul Summers said: “Asra is extremely fortunate to have appointed someone of Rob’s calibre in the mining industry. He brings to the company a wealth of experience and proven leadership history.”

“The Board look forward to the future with Rob as MD and are confident that this next stage of growth following the recent discovery of rare earths and critical minerals is going to be an exciting time for the company.”

Summers said Longley and fellow director Mathew Longworth would form a very sound base of senior geologists with management and corporate experience upon which Asra could build its future.

As part of the Board transition, Peretz Schapiro has resigned as Asra Executive Director. Summers thanked him for being instrumental in the development of the company and his leadership and commitment during his time in that role.

Longley has a first-class honours degree in geology from UWA.

He has several gold and strategic mineral projects under his belt, including the Sunrise nickel-cobalt-scandium-platinum project in NSW and many gold, nickel and lithium deposits in Western Australia.

Besides 30-plus years’ technical, exploration and development hands-on project involvement Longley also brings to Asra significant management experience.

He was General Manager Geology for Sundance Resources in Africa from 2007 to 2015 and CEO and MD of Helios Gold. His most recent position was CEO and MD of ASX-listed minerals explorer Ardiden.

Longley is also a non-executive director of Green Technology Metals, an ASX-listed Subiaco-based company focused on building a vertically integrated lithium business in Canada.

Longley will be able to bring to the table his varied and multi-layered experience for the benefit of Asra’s Mt Stirling project, that comprises about 74 square kilometres of tenure, some 20km north of Leonora. Mt Stirling has 10 advanced gold prospects and in September, the company reported a 23 per cent upgrade to the project’s mineral resource estimate, or “MRE” – from 118,384 ounces gold to 152,000 ounces gold.

The MRE for the project’s MS Viserion deposit increased 34 per cent from 102,000 ounces gold to 137,000 ounces gold with 2,549,000 tonnes at 1.7 grams per tonne gold using a 0.5 g/t gold lower reporting cut-off.

Mt Stirling is close to excellent infrastructure including road, rail and mills and is along the Ursus Fault, that boasts numerous gold prospects to the south belonging to large gold producer Red 5.

In fact, the region has recently produced approximately 14 million ounces of gold from mines such as Tower Hills, Sons of Gwalia, Thunderbox, Harbour Lights and Gwalia.

Moreover, the discovery of clean heavy rare earth elements and critical minerals has prompted Asra to redefine Mt Stirling as a multi-mineral play. Immediately southwest of the project’s two major gold discoveries, MS Viserion and Stirling Well, in January the company unearthed heavy rare earths mineralisation at its Wishbone and Yttria prospects in addition to cobalt and scandium traces.

Further drilling has led to the identified traces being upgraded into significant continuous scandium oxide and cobalt mineralisation and Asra says Wishbone and Yttria host all five of the most critical REEs – dysprosium, terbium, europium, neodymium and yttrium.

With a grab-bag of such in-vogue “new” minerals and the “old” favourite gold, plus a respected industry figure taking the helm, Asra Minerals will no doubt be anticipating an eventful 2023

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