Outstanding Metallurgical Results Significantly De-Risk Mandilla Gold

Astral Resources NL (ASX: AAR) (Astral or the Company) is pleased to report metallurgical test results for Hestia, Eos and Iris, part of the 100%-owned Mandilla Gold Project (Mandilla), located approximately 70km south of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia (Figure 1).

HIGHLIGHTS

• Exceptional metallurgical characteristics of the Mandilla Gold Project reconfirmed by recent test- work undertaken on samples from the Hestia, Eos and Iris deposits.
• Metallurgical testing was completed under a range of grind sizes and under very modest cyanide concentrations reflecting typical process plant conditions.
• Outstanding results were achieved, with extremely high gravity gold recoveries and very rapid leaching. At a 212µm grind size, the final gold recoveries achieved after only eight hours of leaching were:
  • For Hestia, 96.5% gravity recovery, 99.5% final recovery;
  • For Eos, 17.9% gravity recovery, 98.8% final recovery; and
  • For Iris,66.8% gravity recovery, 96.5% final recovery.
• Consistent with the results achieved previously at Theia, Mandilla’s flagship deposit, metallurgical results at Hestia, Eos and Iris demonstrate extremely high gold recoveries, fast leach kinetics and low reagent consumptions.
• Turning to exploration, the first phase of an in-fill RC program at Theia has recently been completed with 70 holes drilled for an aggregate 6,500 metres. The drill rig has relocated to the Feysville Gold Project to undertake a 34-hole (3,750 metres) program to test for extensions to the Kamperman deposit.
• Seven out of the 34 holes have already been completed; encouragingly, the first three holes, including a 200-metre step-out to the north and the two most north-eastern step-outs, have all intersected significant quartz and sulphide mineralisation which is a characteristic of the lithologies which host mineralisation elsewhere at Kamperman.
• Mineral Resource estimations are currently underway for Think Big, Rogan Josh and Kamperman – all at Feysville – and are expected to be reported later this month.

Astral Resources’ Managing Director Marc Ducler said: “The exceptional metallurgical results for Hestia, Eos and Iris continue to highlight the outstanding metallurgical characteristics of the Mandilla Gold Project. Typically, gold project studies in the Eastern Goldfields report initial metallurgical results based on 1,000ppm cyanide concentrations and 75µm grind sizes. The confidence in the Mandilla Gold Project gained from prior studies allowed us to successfully test much lower cyanide levels at much coarser grind sizes that would deliver very low processing costs yet still achieve sector-leading gold recoveries.

“To date, we have conducted 20 gravity and leach tests at Mandilla, with the gold remaining in the assayed tail averaging 0.02g/t Au. This demonstrates that the 95.7% gold recovery assumption used in the Scoping Study, while considered high by industry standards, is potentially conservative when considering the excellent metallurgical properties being…