Transcription of The Stock Network Interview with Astute Metals (ASX:ASE) Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Matthew Healy
Lel Smits: Astute Metals is a mineral exploration business operating two wholly owned projects in the US state of Nevada. The company recently unveiled a high-grade lithium discovery at its Red Mountain project with multiple drill holes delivering broad and rich lithium intercepts. Astute is also set to fast-track exploration works across its under-explored Needles epithermal gold and silver project, including drill testing several priority targets.
Astute Metals Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Matthew Healy joins me to discuss the company’s upcoming plans. Matt, welcome to the Stock Network.
Matthew Healy: Yeah, thanks, Lel. It’s great to be here.
Lel Smits: Now, both of your exploration projects are located in Nevada. Can you tell us why this jurisdiction is attractive for lithium and gold mining?
Matthew Healy: Yeah, look, Lel, it certainly is attractive. In fact, Nevada in the last five years has been a top three jurisdiction in the Fraser Institute Investment Attractiveness Surveys for mining companies. So it’s not just me, it’s official. And Nevada is for a number of reasons, okay.
So it’s a very mining-friendly jurisdiction, has transparent approvals processes. It’s well-serviced by infrastructure. And of course, the geology, you know, it’s a very prospective state, number five gold producer in the world.
And it hosts the largest lithium reserves in North America. So for a company like Astute, we’re advancing lithium and gold projects. There’s literally no better place to be in the world. It certainly has a very strong reputation.
Lel Smits: And when it comes to Astute, you’ve reported a series of high-grade lithium intercepts at Red Mountain. Can you really take us through how the mineralized system is shaping up here?
Matthew Healy: Yeah, sure. And look, for your listeners that may not be aware, Red Mountain is a lithium clay project, and these are large-scale projects. They’re low-grade, but one of the great things about them is you can produce a battery-grade lithium product at the mine. So it’s a value-added product.
In terms of Red Mountain, we made the discovery just over a year ago, put the first hole in the ground. We’ve done 19 holes in total. 18 of those have hit high-grade lithium mineralization, over a 5.6-kilometer strike.
So to answer your question, it’s shaping up very well. It’s looking very attractive from both the grade perspective and the scale perspective.
Lel Smits: Brilliant. And finally, you recently secured $5.5 million through an oversubscribed placement. How will the funding be used to advance exploration works at Red Mountain and also your Needles gold and silver project?
Matthew Healy: Yeah, great question. In less than two weeks, we’re going to have a rig out on the ground at Needles. And what we’re looking to do there is we’re testing six high-grade epithermal gold-silver targets. And just as an example of one of them that we call the Eastern Shaft, we’ve got some historical workings there. We’ve got rock chips, 28 grams per ton, 33 grams per ton gold, over 600 grams per ton silver, and it’s never seen a drill hole.
So that’s just one example. We’re testing six targets in total. Once we’ve done at Needles, we’re going to take that same rig over to Red Mountain.
And what we’re looking to do there is infill drill the high-grade part of the Red Mountain project, and with a view to putting out a mineral resource at the end of the year.
Lel Smits: Excellent. Certainly a busy time for Astute Metals. Thank you for taking us through the latest, Matt.
Matthew Healy: Thanks a lot.
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