Gold deposits in Northeast Tasmania lie within a continuation of the Western Lachlan Fold Belt in Victoria – one of the world’s largest orogenic gold provinces.

The Western Lachlan Fold Belt in Victoria hosts the >3 MOz Fosterville Mine, Bendigo and other Tier 1 goldfields and has produced >80 MOz gold.

NE Tasmania hosts the Beaconsfield Mine (2.3 MOz), New Golden Gate Mine (0.3 MOz) and Lefroy Goldfield (0.2MOz), along with hundreds of smaller historic gold mines and occurrences.

While Victoria is currently experiencing intense gold exploration activity, NE Tasmania has had very little modern gold exploration undertaken.

Continuation of Western Lachlan Fold Belt from Victoria into NE Tasmania

Stellar’s wholly owned subsidiary, Tarcoola Iron Pty Ltd, holds 12 Exploration Licences in NE Tasmania covering a combined area of 2,212 km² which is prospective for gold, tin, lithium and base metals.

Eleven of Stellar’s twelve EL’s (EL10/2020 to EL18/2020, EL2/2021 and EL3/2021) are prospective for Victorian style Orogenic Gold and for Intrusive Related Gold Systems (IRGS).

EL19/2020 (Scamander) and EL3/2022 North Scamander Block are highly prospective for tin and base metals with significant historic exploration and drilling undertaken over the licence areas.

EL3/2022 Mt Paris Block is prospective for Tin and Lithium.

There are ~77 recorded historic gold occurrences and ~83 tin and base metals occurrences over Stellar’s Exploration Licences in NE Tasmania.

22 medium to very-high priority desktop exploration targets within Stellar’s Northeast Tasmania EL’s have been identified by Stellar’s technical team.

The majority of these priority targets are orogenic gold and IRGS gold targets, other than the Scamander advanced tin and base metals targets on EL19/2020 and the Mt Paris tin and lithium target on ELA3/2022.

A summary of Stellar’s Northeast Tasmania priority exploration targets and planned field work programs is shown below.

Priority Exploration Targets and Planned Work Programs within Stellar’s Northeast Tasmania EL’s

Exploration commenced in early 2022 focusing on reconnaissance field exploration and surface geochemical sampling of 22 priority desktop exploration targets.

Encouraging results from the first major soil sampling program completed in 2022 defined significant soil gold anomalies at Leura and Back Creek on EL12/2020.

During 2023 fieldwork has focused more on rockchip sampling programs targeting mica hosted lithium and tin targets within alkali granites on EL3/2022, EL15/2020, EL18/2020, EL17/2020 and EL3/2021with results pending.

Surface geochemistry programs exploring for gold mineralisation on other EL’s are ongoing.

Progress to date Stellar has a full time Exploration Geologist undertaking field exploration in NE Tasmania

The Back Creek Goldfield is located near Pipers River, approximately 45km north of Launceston and 9km east of the Lefroy goldfield in Northeast Tasmania. Gold was first discovered at Back Creek in 1869 and worked up until 1890, with most production from the alluvial leads. Historical reports put gold grades from the hard-rock Franklin Mine on an third-party Mining Lease adjacent to Stellar’s EL12/2020 in a range between approximately 9 – 20 g/t Au (Broadhurst, 1935).

The Leura prospect is located on Stellar’s 100%-owned EL12/2020, 3km southeast of the main Back Creek goldfield. Both alluvial and hard rock occurrences were worked historically at Leura, with hard-rock grades estimated to average 57 g/t Au (Montgomery, 1894).

The combination of the high-grade historic gold mining occurrences, similar structural style to the Lefroy and Beaconsfield gold deposits, and the lack of modern exploration, led to Stellar prioritising gold exploration of the Leura and Back Creek prospects on EL12/2020 as its first field exploration program completed in 2021.

A C-horizon soil survey comprising of 276 samples at Leura and 274 samples at Back Creek was completed within EL12/2020, with the assay results announced in July 2022.

Historically mapped gold mineralisation of the Back Creek goldfield, with soil sample locations

Leura Soil Sampling Results

Soil samples over the historic Leura Goldfield returned very encouraging gold assay results ranging from 0.1 to 2.4 g/t Au over a 400m – 500m strike length, open in both directions with likely extensions under shallow cover (>5m). These strongly anomalous soil gold results confirm the location of the previously described Leura reefs (veins) and extend their strike lengths. The high-grade gold soil results from Leura, combined with the likely strike extensions make this a very attractive drill target.

Gridded gold (ppm) results for soil samples at Leura, with locations of historically mapped reefs, interpreted extensions, and distribution of post-mineralisation cover (note: 1 ppm = 1 g/t)

Back Creek Goldfield Soil Sampling Results

Soil samples over the Lady Emily, Nevermind and Hidden Treasure Reef prospects in the historic Back Creek Goldfield within EL12/2020 returned anomalous gold results including:

• Lady Emily Reef – anomalous gold soil results ranging from 0.02 to 0.16 g/t Au over a ~200m strike length over the historic Lady Emily Mine.
• Nevermind Reefs – anomalous gold soil results ranging from 0.02 to 0.23 g/t Au over ~100m strike length over the northern reef and 0.02 to 0.05 g/t Au over ~50m strike length over the southern reef of the historic Nevermind Mine.
• Hidden Treasure Reef – anomalous gold soil results over a range of 0.02 to 0.05 g/t Au and a potential strike length of >100m also characterise the approximate location of the Hidden Treasure Reef on EL12/2020, although transported cover has obscured the results over this area.

Compared to Leura, the soil gold assay results at Back Creek within EL12/2020 are lower (maximum 0.23 g/t Au), however, the Back Creek soil gold results are still encouraging. The reported east-west trend is clearly reflected in the contoured gold results, which clearly map the distribution and possible strike extensions of the historically mapped reefs (veins), despite the patchy alluvial cover.

Gridded gold (ppm) results for soil samples at Back Creek, showing historically mapped reefs, alluvial leads, and the likely distribution of post-mineralisation(alluvial) cover in grey(note: 1 ppm= 1g/t)