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ASRA MINERALS LTD (ASR) - CEO Paul Stephen Discusses the Gold Rush Revival and Highly Prospective Tenements
The gold exploration landscape in Western Australia is heating up as Asra Minerals undergoes a dramatic transformation. CEO Paul Stephen reveals how this ASX-listed explorer is pivoting sharply from diversified metals to become a laser-focused gold company with ambitious resource targets in the legendary Leonora goldfields.
With fresh leadership and a renewed strategy, Asra has already delivered compelling high-grade intercepts at their Sapphire and Orion prospects—part of the highly prospective Kookynie area in their Leonora South project. These narrow but exceptionally rich quartz veins echo the million-ounce Raleigh deposit successfully mined by Evolution Mining.
What sets Asra apart is their strategic consolidation of previously fragmented tenements, creating the first unified exploration approach across this promising gold system in decades. The recent $3 million sale of their Tarmoola Pastoral Lease has strengthened their financial position without shareholder dilution, while removing operational distractions. With drilling set to commence by April 2025 and ambitious plans to grow resources beyond 500,000 ounces, Paul's focused approach promises to deliver substantial shareholder value through the drill bit.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Welcome back to ASX Briefs, the podcast where we bring you insights from the leaders of ASX listed companies. And today I'm joined by Paul Stephen, the Chief Executive Officer at Asra Minerals Limited, an emerging gold and critical minerals explorer, strategically focused on the highly prospective Leonora region in Western Australia's eastern goldfields and with a 936 square kilometre tenure and a combined JORC gold resource of 200,000 ounces. Paul, thanks for joining me today and welcome to the ASX Briefs podcast.
Paul Stephen Guest
Yeah, thank you, Andrew.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Now, Paul, for investors that may be unfamiliar with Asra Minerals, can you just start by giving us a brief overview of the company?
Paul Stephen Guest
Yeah, look, Asra is in a really interesting situation because it started to pivot around mid-last year. They had a change in management, they made some decisions to move out of the lithium and rare earth space and focus on gold, and you know, I was fortunate enough to come along and join the company a couple of weeks into December. So, 2025 sees the company really moving forward as a very different organisation with a very different focus to last year, to 2024, and I think it's going to be an exciting time.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and you've recently completed Phase 1 drilling at both Leonora North and South, so can you walk us through the key findings from these programs and how they are shaping your strategy for phase two?
Paul Stephen Guest
Look, the bulk of that program was down around Kookynie, at what we call Leonora South, and they had some exceptional results. You know, we got some really good grades. More importantly, we hit the structure where we, where we had predicted it to be. So, I guess, the first point is we're very confident to the um around Kookynie, with phase two being a successful drill program. We we're very certain that we understand the geological modelling and you know the grade profile.
So, you know, having the opportunity to do a drill out on an ore body that's likely to run at sort of, you know, anywhere between an ounce and two ounces is really quite an exceptional opportunity for the company. What it also allowed us to do was complete a fairly intense compilation of both historical data, you know, going back to different exploration companies that have run exploration programs in and around this area, but also compiling that and combining it with the Aeromag that we flew over both the north and south projects, and what that's done is put us in a position where we have some new targets that are in areas that were not previously thought to be prospective. Fundamentally, they were mapped by, you know, the government mapping and considered to be granites. We've proven that they're definitely not, and so we have both brownfields’ targets around phase one drilling. But we in addition have some exceptional work that we can do on brand new areas, and we all know that. You know that a success in an area previously thought to be un-prospective is an investor's dream.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Certainly is. Now, the high-grade intercepts at Sapphire and Orion are compelling. So, what does this say about the potential scale and economic viability of these assets?
Paul Stephen Guest
Well, I think there is a misconception there or a concern in the market about these. You know very, very high grade but relatively narrow quartz veins. So, you know it's a quartz vein that will be anywhere between a metre and two or three metres thick. Good examples in both this area and in modern times is the Raleigh deposit that's been mined by Evolution very, very profitably over a million ounces. And you know the two people responsible for that discovery are involved with Asra.
So, Matt Longworth on our board was the head of exploration for Goldfields when the Raleigh deposit was found and our head of exploration, John Harris, was the main operator on site when they were drilling that. So, we feel like we've got the best internal expertise for this style of deposit. But if we look at the actual Kookynie area the biggest historical mine that was at the time it was mined, the biggest mine in WA - Cosmopolitan you know, Andrew, that mine is 300,000 ounces at over an ounce in grade down to about 600 metres. So that was exactly what we're looking at like with Orion and Sapphire and you know our current working theory is that Orion and Sapphire will be a series of, if you like, stacked or laddered veins and there's an awful lot more to be found out there.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and you've also finalised the Tarmoola Pastoral Lease sale. So how has this strengthened Asra's financial and operational flexibility as you gear up for the 2025 exploration campaigns?
Paul Stephen Guest
Yeah, well, I think it's all about focus. So, you know, we look at a company where I've come and joined, and focus is our key word. We don't want to get distracted by owning and running a cattle station. We don't want to be distracted into other commodities. We're a gold company and we're going to be laser focused on that development.
Of course, selling the cattle station for, you know, $3 million is a great result for shareholders. It's $3 million that we don't need to go and get from investors and that's been put to very, very good use. But the biggest single win for me is to be able to focus our team and not have to run people and services around cattle. You know, I think that was as I said. You know, going into 2025, we're effectively a brand-new company. You know, I had someone go and say, oh look, I've had a look at your last annual report, and I think I understand what the company's doing and I said well, you know, that's unfortunate, because we're not doing any of those things anymore.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and your Leonora North project at Mount Stirling covers a 12-kilometre perspective zone along the Ursus Fault, with significant areas still untested. So, what's your approach to unlocking the value of this underexplored ground?
Paul Stephen Guest
Look, it's extremely underexplored and there's two areas up there, fundamentally the north and the south. What we've focused on to the north is we've completed the Aeromag, so we've got the magnetics over it and that's certainly lit up some very strong targets. We know the structures extremely well and you know the Ursus Fault, which you know with us and Bolt Resources has got, you know, 300,000 ounces on it right now. You know that's a fault and a geological feature that we think is very likely to host more than half a million ounces, possibly a big deposit there. We've finished doing soils over the entire area so we've now got the last of our geochemistry will be back with us later this week. That's focused us in on where to go with the drill rig.
And you know the great thing you talk about what's changed in the last five years in that area. Well, they've built the King of the Hill Mill. So, you know you've now got a 6 million tonne per annum mill sitting 12 kilometres away and you know a 6 million tonne per annum mill is a hungry mill. You know they've got to feed it, they've got to put a lot of dirt through it, so I'd like to think we can turn up something really good there. I think the other thing about our current resources there is they're not drilled out. So, there's sort of 150,000 ounces of gold across two deposits. They're very close to each other they're less than a kilometre apart. There's certainly some working theories that they could join up. I think we've got a lot of work to do to build up our existing resource base there, and I think it's something we can do very quickly.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and can you just tell us a little bit more about the geological similarities of your projects to nearby multi-million ounce deposits and how that informs your exploration methods and the resource growth potential?
Paul Stephen Guest
So clearly there’s some analogies and some similarities with some of our projects and the King of the Hill mine. So, King of the Hill being plus 4 million ounces currently in production. And there's certainly especially our Stirling well deposit, you know it looks very, very similar in geological characteristics. You know it's a flat-lying ore body that you know simply hasn't had any drill holes put underneath it, so it's really only been drilled to one horizon, and you know there's a lot of upside with that. You know, one of the not challenges, but one of the features, I think, is our projects to the north are geologically different to those at the south.
To the south we're really looking at high-grade gold veins and you know just the proximity to known mineralisation I think is just an enormous factor. I mean, I've never, you know, I've never seen so many you know old workings clustered around, you know, clustered in ways that you can actually map them, and you can see what the old timers were chasing and you can see that. You know it's very continuous and it all lines up.
And I think the biggest factor is probably the continuity of ownership. So, particularly around Kookynie, there's been a history of companies owning relatively small parts of the jigsaw puzzle. Really, this is the first time in a long time that that area has been held by one company, you know, and that enables us to look at the exploration differently. You know we're not limited to, you know, small postage stamps. You know we've got the ability to look at much, much larger areas and much, much larger potential resources.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and just looking at the corporate outlook. So how does the company plan to balance exploration advancement with maintaining a strong financial position, particularly with a focus on shareholder value?
Paul Stephen Guest
Oh look, I think my view on all junior companies, especially junior exploration companies, is that doing nothing costs you money. You know the best way to go broke is to not be active. So, you know, yes, we're going to take on more investment money. Yes, we're going to be a very aggressive explorer. I think we've got the support from existing shareholders, and I think we've got the support from new shareholders Over the course of the year. You know, one of our goals is to grow to a size that we can start to attract some institutional investment. I certainly think we've got the land package to do that, and you know it's going to be driven by the drill rig. We had a meeting today with drillers. I think we can probably you know we'll probably be on site drilling. I'd like to think before the end of the month, but sort of end of the month, start of April, we'll be out there and start chasing these targets.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, now, just to wrap things up, what are some of the key milestones you're looking to achieve in the next 12 to 18 months?
Paul Stephen Guest
Well, my key goal is to get the company to more than half a million ounces of gold. Of course, we'd all like to be a million ounce plus plus, and we're definitely going in that direction. But you know I'll be very disappointed that we haven't grown our resource base to north half a million in the next short period of time. You know we've got a lot of shares on issue. We will probably do a consolidation of capital. We're going to be very active in that space and you know, I think in a lot of ways it's a restart for the company. You know it's a restart with a focus on gold and we're going to say you know my job is to keep us very focused on that and not get knocked off our path.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, Paul. Well, it's been great to chat today to get an update on the company and we look forward to further updates from Asra Minerals in the upcoming months.
Paul Stephen Guest
Thanks very much, Andrew.
Andrew Musgrave Host
That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.