Astra Exploration is on the hunt for precious metals in Chile. Please give readers some background to the company
Astra was founded in August 2020 and listed on TSXV in January 2022 for the purpose of acquiring and exploring the Pampa Paciencia epithermal gold-silver discovery in northern Chile. Our team consists of well-known industry professionals credited with multiple discoveries similar to what we’re exploring for and has operational expertise in our exploration jurisdiction.
In our short history and with limited drilling, we’ve discovered a very large epithermal system with multiple shoots of high-grade gold and silver – a solid start which demonstrates the potential for the project (which is almost completely unexplored for epithermal precious metals) to host significant resources. This potential is further evidenced by Astra’s shareholder roster. Key shareholders include Michael Gentile, Peter Marrone, New Venture Equities Fund (Dundee-Goodman), Astra Management, principals of Agentis Capital, and Arena Minerals. These groups constitute a large majority of ownership.
Why is Chile such a good jurisdiction for precious metals exploration right now?
Chile hosts some of the largest copper porphyry deposits in the world, and porphyries are often the drivers of these epithermal precious metals systems, so the geological potential for these systems is terrific. Additionally, much of this highly-prospective ground has never been explored for epithermal because of the focus on copper and also because much of the time, these epithermal systems don’t daylight – that is, there’s very little to no evidence of them at surface. There are few places that are as prospective.
Additionally, Chile has historically been a mining-friendly jurisdiction, and despite recent political challenges, the public is very supportive of the mining industry. We continue to see long-term investment into Chile from major mining companies in the form of both exploration and mine development, so we’re not the only ones who recognize that Chile is an attractive jurisdiction.
Let’s move on to your projects. Your flagship property is the Pampa Paciencia project, which is a low sulphidation epithermal gold-silver deposit. Please give us an overview of recent milestones at the project, including your recent definitive agreement to acquire the remaining 20% interest in the project
As you mention, we’ve consolidated 100% ownership in the project, which we are very pleased with. We’ve completed two RC drill programmes this year totalling about 7,000m, which has confirmed over 2km of thick (10-15m average true thickness) vein structures hosting three separate shoots of high-grade gold-silver mineralization. This drilling has been focused on a very small (less than 5% of the total project) area of the project and our work continues to produce evidence that Pampa Paciencia hosts a very large epithermal system with multiple veins, most of which remain completely unexplored. Further, it is located in an active mining district where the existing infrastructure is exceptional. It is rare to find a project with this kind of demonstrated potential at such an early stage that is almost completely unexplored, yet is surrounded by the infrastructure necessary to building a mine.
Pampa Paciencia hosts a very large epithermal system with multiple veins
Your other project is Cerro Bayo, a porphyry gold discovery. What’s been happening there?
Cerro Bayo has both porphyry and high-sulphidation epithermal targets. Our work there has been limited due to our focus on Pampa Paciencia and difficult economic conditions, but it’s merits shouldn’t be underestimated. Historical drill geochemistry from the ‘90s produced encouraging gold results and it is located within the Maricunga – a world-class district which hosts over 90Moz of gold and 20Blbs of copper.
What makes Astra Exploration an attractive prospect for investors at the moment?
Astra offers incredible upside potential to shareholders. We have a team with the technical and operational expertise to develop the discovery at Pampa Paciencia, and the backing of an impressive roster of investors. Our shares are tightly held, and we only have 38.6M shares outstanding. Not many investment opportunities have the number of critical ingredients which Astra embodies. Plus, industry conditions like tax-loss selling has created temporary buying opportunities in the market.
What are some of your plans in the pipeline for the rest of the year and into 2023?
The next several months will focus on extensive analysis of drill results to better understand the drivers of mineralization and refine our targeting methods for the next programme. Additionally, we are proceeding with advanced permitting which, upon successful completion, will allow us to drill unlimited holes and metres at Pampa Paceienca. We expect this permit process to be completed in Q3 2023, but we can drill targets on the Impaciencia claims in the meantime.
