Astro Resources NL (ASX:ARO) has completed the first round of infill drilling at Jack Track tenement in WA, focusing on significant portions of the heavy mineral resource.
Drilling was designed to enable Astro to upgrade the resource from the inferred to indicated category, and a maiden indicated resource is expected next quarter.
Moving ahead, the remaining Jack Track, Jack Track Northwest, Jack Track West and Jack Track Southwest deposits are slated for drilling in February next year.
In the meantime, a scoping study encompassing the entire Governor Broome Project will kick off once the resource upgrade is complete.
Drilling program
Astro’s infill drilling program tested portions of the:
- Jack Track deposit within the bluegum plantations; and
- The Jack Track Southwest deposit.
The program encompassed 314 holes for 3,520 metres and 2,499 samples.
Due to weather conditions, Astro suspended drilling in its planned 750-hole program.
However, the company intends to complete the infill drilling of the remaining areas of the Jack Track Tenement in February 2023; the next available opportunity to complete the program.
In addition, Astro collected a bulk sample across the central portion of the Jack Track deposit by combining 8-kilogram samples from each metre drilled within the mineralisation.
This sample will be tested by Allied Mineral Laboratories in Perth, which will support the preliminary development of a process flowsheet and help Astro evaluate the grades and recoveries of its target heavy mineral products.
This test-work is expected to begin after assay results have been received from those drilled samples.
