Recent drilling at the Kookyne East gold project in Western Australia has yielded high-grade assays at the historical Sapphire and Orion mines for Asra Minerals Ltd (ASX:ASR).

Three diamond drill holes were completed at these sites, intersecting the mineral structures which Asra was aiming to target, with intercepts from Sapphire including 1 metre at 47.95 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 115.2 metres in one hole, and 1m at 23.12 g/t from 148.7 metres in another.

Meanwhile, another hole drilled at Orion yielded 0.8 metres at 23.97 g/t of gold from 161.2 metres.

The work indicated that mineralisation at both sites had been extended around 30 metres underneath previously drilled intercepts, and also shows that gold grades are strong at depth, echoing findings from drilling completed in 1994.

Growth targets will be identified based on this information, which will also be plugged into Asra’s regional model for the project.

Executive chairman Paul Summers said the results of the program were encouraging, particularly evidence of gold in the drill core.

“The diamond program successfully intersected the targeted structure which not only strengthens our confidence in historical drilling, but also demonstrates the extension of mineralisation at depth,” he said.

“We now have valuable structural information with the anticipated high-grade lode positions confirming our interpretations, as well as the validity of historical drillinginformation at both Orion and Sapphire.

“We will continue to systematically extend these known targets including a range of additional resource growth and discovery targets that have been generated from our extensive data review.

“With multiple exploration programs underway we are pleased to provide Asra shareholders with strong news flow for the remainder of the year.”

Asra has been trading at 0.4 cents.

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