Astro Resources NL (ASX:ARO) has wrapped up a key infill drilling program at its 100%-owned Governor Broome Mineral Sands Project in the south-west of WA, ahead of an anticipated upgrade to its mineral resource estimate (MRE) due in the third quarter of the year.
The program was designed to upgrade the resource in four areas where it was sitting in the inferred category and ranged across 502 holes for a combined 5,351 metres.
High-value mineral assemblage
The drilling covered the eastern zone of the Jack Track deposit, which includes a high-value mineral assemblage containing 96.5% valuable heavy minerals, including 10.5% zircon and 85.5% titanium minerals, with the primary ilmenite containing 58% titanium dioxide.
An updated mineral resource is an important prerequisite to unlock the value of the Governor Broome Project as part of a scoping study scheduled for the first quarter of 2024.
A total of 3,083 samples have been delivered for assay.
Proximity to infrastructure
The Governor Broome Project is some 95 kilometres, by sealed road, south of Busselton. It’s 105 kilometres south of Iluka’s processing plant at Capel, and 135 kilometres from Bunbury Port and from Picton, where Doral has a heavy mineral separation plant.
A 132-kilovolt power line is conveniently located just 5 kilometres to the north and a three-phase power line passes through the project, giving it significant strategic advantages from an infrastructure and access perspective.
Now that the final section of the in-fill drilling program is complete the company awaits laboratory results, including heavy mineral grades for drill samples from Jack Track East. These are due in by the end of June, with results from the remaining areas by the end of August.
When it has the assay results to hand, Astro will conduct mineral assemblage analysis, closely followed by an updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) towards the end of August.
These milestones will allow the company to embark on the scoping study, to be completed in the first quarter of 2024.