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Asra Minerals (ASX:ASR) has come away from recent diamond drilling at its Orion and Sapphire prospects at Leonora South a little disappointed, admitting the uncovered grade continuity was “not what we had hoped for.”
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But, the $6M gold and rare earth smallcap isn’t letting it get them down and says it will take the “extremely valuable” data into its next exploration efforts.
“While the results from our deeper drilling at Orion and Sapphire were not what we had hoped for in terms of grade continuity, the data is extremely valuable,” Asra’s managing director, Paul Stephen, said today.
Most importantly, he explained, it’s given Asra some geological insights into the structural controls of the mineralisation at depth – mainly “that the high-grade system does not extend at a predictable depth.”
“This information will be instrumental in guiding our future exploration strategies,” Mr Stephen declared, “and we’ll continue to refine our model.”
While Asra’s management team does sound hopeful, it may not quite be the same once markets open on Friday; the little explorer already took a -40% battering through Thursday even as the ASX clocked up a record 9,000pts.
With nearly 42 million shares on offer at 0.2 cents each, there’s room for big dips.
But, it also means there’s room for big jumps for the smallcap as well.
Update 10:41am: It was a jump; ASR added +33.3% at open today.
And one standout in the August 22 release may have traders licking their lips: Even with the continuity miss, Asra did validate the presence of coarse gold.
An “unexpected” massive to semi-massive pyrrhotite zone was also intercepted in hole NICD007, with the hit displaying Co, Cu, Ti, V, and Zn and suggesting potential for a new kind of mineralisation in future follow-ups.
Asra also landed an outstanding high-grade gold intersection at its nearby Eclipse Prospect, recording 14 metres at 7.49 grams per tonne gold from 12 metres.
And the original Orion and Sapphire prospect hits at Leonora South were still reasonably interesting: One metre at 1.98g/t gold from 147 metres in NICD010 (including 3.18g/t gold at 2.15g/t gold in repeat assays), 1m at 1.1g/t gold from 180m in NICD012, and 3m at 0.76g/t gold from 172m in NICD007.
As noted, ASR heads into Friday’s morning trade at 0.2cps.
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