Recent outstanding antimony, gold and silver assays at Dart Mining (ASX: DTM)’s Coonambula Project have sent the company’s share price as high as over 400% above our initial entry point, with samples recording results up to 65.3% Sb, 17g/t Au and 97.9g/t Ag – while an intercept just 42m from surface hit massive sulphide that is around 70% Stibnite. A JORC resource is not far away as drilling continues, which will be followed by a larger diamond drilling campaign – so the recent pullback makes DTM worth a closer look. A 15:1 consolidation that becomes active today should see the company trade more freely too, and it will temporarily be under the ticker DTMDC.
The placement in August led by Oakley Capital Partners and Zerp Capital bolstered DTM’s cash balance by $2.86 million, and an additional $450k was placed to a strategic investor this month. Oakley’s entire portfolio has been on fire lately, including our rare earth and niobium pick Power Minerals (ASX: PNN) – which last week traded as high as 435% above our initial entry price, and is now backed by Next Investors.
DTM’s current exploration program is centered around finding extensions of mineralisation along strike from the Banshee mine, which historically produced 20t of ore grading 20% Sb, and the Perseverance mine, which previously produced 20kt of ore grading 20g/t Au.
A 2014 drilling campaign highlighted by DTM’s JV partner GDM recorded a litany of high grade assays across the project, including 3m at 9.18% Sb from 158m including 1m at 20% Sb from 158m, 6m at 5.12% Sb and 1.55g/t Au from 77m, and 3m at 1.50% Sb and 8.53g/t Au from 18m. There were also standout rock chips of 44.9% Sb, 24.1% Sb, 39.9% Sb, and 39.4% Sb, and surface trenching of 4m at 3.09g/t Au and 1.14% Sb, as well as 1m at 6.15 g/t Au and 3.1% Sb. Further selective rock chips that were found while trenching returned 3.65g/t Au with 23.9% Sb, and 9.93g/t Au with 7.56% Sb.
While both types of samples contained extremely high grades, the latest fieldwork by DTM saw the company revisit GDM’s trenches and discover in situ veining – with results from two veins to the north recording 17g/t Au, 30% Sb and 40.3g/t Ag, and 15.05g/t Au, 26.3% Sb and 27.8g/t Ag. A southern vein contained 5.65g/t Au, 25.6% Sb and 20.6g/t Ag. DTM is now engaged in an expanded systematic channel sampling program along the entire western wall of Banshee, which will determine if gold, silver and antimony is present in the altered granodiorite that surrounds the high-grade veins, as well as ascertain if sub-horizontal veins and structures are mineralised targets at Banshee.
Recently completed Induced Polarisation geophysics, which was funded by the Queensland Government through its Collaborative Explorer Initiative, covered 1.4km of strike across the project. DTM’s company-owned drill rigs are on site working through the 2,000m that is on track to be completed before year end, before at least another 2,000m will commence afterwards.
Coonambula is a fantastic opportunity in addition to the Triumph project, which has been identified as analogous with the 5.6Moz Ravenswood mine. Triumph has historical production of 20koz, has historical high-grade, near-surface assays such as 16m at 9.44g/t Au from 38m, 10m at 26.86g/t Au from 51m and 16m at 5.48g/t from 34m. The recent breakthrough assays at depth, such as 4.4m at 8.99 g/t Au and 28.09g/t Ag from 171.3m, could drastically increase Triumph’s size and scope.
Triumph holds a 150koz at 2.17g/t JORC resource across 5 prospects, all of which are open along strike and at depth, with 85% of ounces contained within 100m of surface and 20% of identified strike. Metallurgical testwork has also recorded recoveries in excess of 96%. The deposit is hosted along just 1.2km of strike, which sits inside a 6km structural corridor – and DTM has a litany of targets that it has been testing with its two company-owned diamond drill rigs. You can read our previous take on DTM here.
The Banshee mine and associated assays from programs completed across 2013 and 2014 can be seen below, with relatively narrow but very high grades on either side. It is open along strike in both directions, where DTM is currently engaged in infill drilling designed to delineate a JORC resource as soon as possible, before then launching an aggressive extensional drilling campaign that will expand on the deposit:
Source: GDM
Below is a visual on the planned and currently underway drill hole locations in relation to the high-grade samples that are surrounding the Banshee mine. The recent IP survey will identify additional high-grade antimony shoots at Banshee, as well as more lodes along strike or parallel to the existing mine – and DTM will be able to correlate the anomalies to the high-grade assays seen above, allowing extremely precise targeting:
Source: DTM
The intercepts from Banshee that kicked off DTM’s recent big run can be seen below. There are three narrow intercepts that each hit massive stibnite from 42m, 45.4m and 68.8m, which could extend above and below to unknown depths. Hitting this 100m west of the Banshee mine in an area of known mineralisation is a terrific result for infill drilling, and with DTM’s rapidly improving understanding of the nature of mineralisation at the project – the company is on track to keep finding these veins:
Source: DTM
Solid Historical Data Forms a Strong Base for DTM
DTM is earning into a 51% interest in the tenements with its joint venture partner Great Divide Mining (ASX: GDM), who listed with the asset in 2023 – and only made the project available because it began producing gold from a different project.
GDM’s prospectus is littered with very useful information about Coonambula, which has been built into DTM’s model to target the extremely high-grade veins in parts of the project. For example, the gold zone that was intermittently mined between 1888 and 1937 at Perseverance is just 10m wide and contained 3 veins that were between 20cm and 50cm thick. There was around 13koz at 20g/t produced from this section, with grades of mineralisation that went all the way up to 71g/t Au – but low grade gold between 0.1g/t and 1g/t occurs right outside the mineralised zone, making precision extremely important.
Coonambula is just 75km away from the 600ktpa Cracow mine, and its owner Aeris Resources (ASX: AIS) has been sourcing 20% of its ore supply from low-grade open-pit material of just 0.75g/t – making small scale production from high-grade veins at Perseverance a worthwhile proposal.
The area of the project where Banshee is located has a long history of production dating all the way back to 1876, most of which is alluvial. 12 RC holes were drilled by the previous owners who vended Coonambula to GDM (as per this article’s first image), but these have already been correlated to a previous IP chargeability image and line up as expected, which can be seen below:
Source: GDM
GDM considered the mineralised trend at Banshee to be over 4km long, but its continuity has not really been fully assessed by prior exploration – leaving a raft of high-value work for DTM to be engaged in.
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Disclaimer: This article is for informational and marketing purposes only, and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to invest. All opinions expressed are our own. We may receive fees or other forms of compensation in connection with the publication of this content, and may own shares in any of the mentioned companies. Please do your own research and seek professional advice before making any investment decisions.