A West Australian-based junior looks like it could be on its way to emulating the successful discovery of two of the state’s last great precious and base metals mines in a prospective under-explored region.
Dundas Minerals Ltd, a November 2021 ASX-listee, is searching for nickel, copper and gold, and wholly-owns 1,845 square kilometres of real estate (covering 12 granted exploration licences) in the Albany-Fraser Orogen ‒ a significant stretch of land that runs from the Great Victoria Desert, passes roughly around 250 kms east of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Goldfields, and continues south-west into the Albany region.
So far this geological jurisdiction, which is predominantly undercover, has in recent times yielded a couple of major modern mining projects.
The first, Tropicana (gold), was discovered in 2005 and became a yellow metal producer in 2013. A joint venture between AngloGold Ashanti Australia Ltd (70%) and Regis Resources Ltd (30%), the operation reached its 3 million ounce mark during 2020.
Meanwhile, the nickel-copper Nova mine, currently owned by IGO Ltd, was found in 2012 and started commercial production during mid-2017.
Given it can take up to 10 years before an economic discovery becomes a mining operation, these turned out to be quite remarkable finds.
Not surprisingly, Dundas now hopes it too will enjoy similar success, with its target primarily being magmatic sulphide nickel mineralisation associated with mafic/ultra-mafic intrusions similar to that of Nova.
During the recent RIU Resurgence Conference in Perth, the junior’s managing director and company secretary ‒ Shane Volk ‒ said the explorer’s activities in the region had been “systematic and disciplined”, especially when it came to its Central and Matilda South targets.
So far Central had arguably generated the most market interest, with Dundas announcing just before the RIU show that a third diamond drill hole, going to a depth of 395 metres, exposed sulphides (pyrite and pyrrhotite) and vein pyrite associated with quartz.
In its release to the ASX, the exploration house said this hole had revealed concentrations of graphite (logged as graphite schists) intersected in various intervals from 51–87m.
Furthermore, in each intercept, brecciated semi-massive vein sulphide (pyrite) and disseminated pyrite were identified.
The presence of pyrite within the graphite, the company noted, indicated deposition due to hydrothermal or metamorphic fluid movement. Such a reducing unit had the potential to precipitate mineralisation in a hydrothermal event.
Assay results are now expected during early 2023.
Volk told RIU delegates that, in terms of regional geology, most of Dundas’ tenements sat within an older Archean setting ‒ or reworked Yilgarn terrain ‒ as well as on the margin of Proterozoic rocks to the east “which is quite important for the exploration we’re doing”.
“There’s been very limited exploration here – really no exploration since the time Nova was discovered in 2012, and the previous exploration has really been very superficial gold exploration with no deep drill holes at all; the deepest hole is around 64m,” he noted.
Dundas started its geophysics program before listing on the Australian bourse, completing a “very detailed” airborne magnetic survey.
This was followed by gravity surveys, which revealed two targets ‒ Matilda South and Central.
At Central, Volk explained, Dundas had identified a 12 km conductive trend below the surface.
“We are convinced we are looking at a very big system,” he told the RIU conference.
“We are in the early stages of our exploration, and we are really trying to understand the geology.”
Moving into 2023, Volk indicated, the junior planned to complete drilling a sixth hole at Central and establish up to five RC holes at Matilda South with the help of some funding, at both targets, from the WA Government.
Further geophysical work was also on the cards.
In addition, he said, investors should not be fearful of junior explorers looking for deposits undercover given a few of them – such as Sirius Resources NL (Nova-Bollinger in 2012), Chalice Mining Ltd (Julimar in 2020), Sandfire Resources Ltd (DeGrussa in 2010) and Galileo Mining Ltd (Callisto in 2022) – had proven they were adept at it.
“We are excited about being in this area – it is a very new area and we look forward to keeping the market up to date about our next two drilling programs,” Volk added.
