Astra Exploration Inc. announce that it has commenced Phase II drilling at its Pampa Paciencia Project located in Northern Chile. The Phase II drill program will consist of up to 5,000 metres of RC drilling and will primarily focus on expanding mineralization at depth and along strike in the two defined mineralized shoots located in the Paciencia Vein System. Secondary targets will consist of other vein structures discovered with Phase I drill program and newly interpreted vein structures from other geophysical targets, in particular those WNW, E-W to ENE-striking magnetic lineaments related with low magnetic regional anomalies.

Pampa Paciencia is a 3,840 hectare road-access low-sulphidation epithermal (LSE) gold-silver project located within an active mining district less than 15 kilometres from two major mines (Sierra Gorda and Spence) and five kilometres from the Faride LSE mine (Figure 3). Astra has completed property wide mapping and sampling, geophysical surveys, and localized trenching and in doing so, has defined a vein boulder field over approximately 75% of the project area. The veins do not outcrop as the majority of the project area is covered by a thin layer of gravels and caliche but the vein float can be used to identify areas of high prospectivity.

Drill results from the Phase I program completed earlier this year defined gold mineralization in the Paciencia Vein System, which is a thick LSE vein structure averaging 10-15 metres thickness over a strike length of approximately 1.4 kilometres. Exploration results continue to indicate a large LSE system under thin cover, with two known zones of gold mineralization near surface which are open along strike and at depth.