Dart Mining (DTM: ASX) is continuing to intersect mineralised porphyry down to around 1100 metres in DUNDD012, with a narrow high grade base metals (plus silver) intersected between 500 metres and 654 metres at the Unicorn Project in Victoria.
The first anomalous gold at Unicorn was intersected within sulphide veins hosted in a low grade porphyry pulse.
Dart is targeting a depth of 1200 metres which it expects to be reached by mid-June, with the final drill results expected to be released in late July.
The deep drilling program was designed to test the continuity of Unicorn’s mineralisation beyond the boundaries of the current JORC Resource.
Dart said whilst one deep hole in a system the size and depth of Unicorn is insufficient to provide a complete understanding, some important conclusions can nevertheless be drawn.
The deep drilling intersected several zones of high grade molybdenum mineralisation including discrete zones of base metals and, for the first time at Unicorn, indications of gold.
Dart's preliminary interpretation of the results confirms that Unicorn is similar to the Climax model of multiple high grade stacked mineral horizons. This, together with indications of multiple intrusive pulses at Unicorn, confirms the possibility of a large target resource base at depth.
Lindsay Ward, managing director for Dart, commented: “Whilst this single deep drill hole within the Unicorn system has not, as yet, seen another high grade pulse below 750 meters, the intersection of porphyry to a current depth of 1100 metres indicates the system is very large at depth and still shows Mo mineralisation within low density quartz veining.
"The intersection of previously unknown high grade base metals sulphide veining, including anomalous gold, within the system is further evidence of a multi-phased intrusive centre with the potential for a future underground mine at Unicorn.”
Dart announced last month that DUNDD012, the first deep hole to test the depth extension of the Unicorn Mo + Cu + Ag deposit below 700 metres, had confirmed the continuation of high grade molybdenum horizons at depth.
Ward added, “The UST’s intersected at 990 metres indicate a new porphyry pulse with potentially additional high grade Mo pulses to the east of the current drill hole, which may suggest DUNDD012 is located to the west of the next series of stacked high grade Mo horizons.
"This is not unexpected given we have only drilled a single hole within what is a very large mineralised porphyry system - it is not unusual for porphyry’s of this nature to have had 60 kilometres of drilling completed to prove up an underground resource.
"The deep drilling at Unicorn is still in the very early stages for Dart Mining, with DUNDD012 being the solitary hole below 700 metres."
Routine sampling
Routine geochemical sampling of 2 metres from every 10 metres of down hole below 400 metres will capture changes in rock and fluid geochemistry and will be supplemented with a petrographic (microscope examination) sampling program, this data will greatly assist the interpretation of DUNNDD012 and will assist future deep hole targeting to increase the likelihood of intersecting further overlapping high grade Mo-rich porphyry pulses within Unicorn.
Since drilling recommenced in recent weeks, DUNDD012 has remained within the host quartz feldspar porphyry and micro granodiorite with visible Mo showing within sparse narrow quartz veins.
Unicorn's Scoping Study key financials
- Initial mine life 14 years – strong potential to increase to 20 years;
- NPV $255M initial 14 years (100% equity) – +6yr life3 adds $50 - 70M NPV;
- 2.5 year payback – pretax IRR 27% (discount rate 10% / 100% equity);
- Onsite cash cost A$3.58/Ib2 – project cash positive at Mo US$8/lb1;
- Exchange rate A$1.00 : US$0.90 – average over initial 14 yr project life;
- Average Mo price over initial 14 year mine life US$15.40/Ib;
- Average Cu price over initial 14 year mine life US$3.80/Ib; and
- Average Ag price over initial 14 year mine life US$32.5/Oz.
Dart attracts $10M from U.S. investor
In March this year Dart attracted U.S. based institutional investor RK Mine Finance (Red Kite) to purchase up to a 3% Net Smelter Royalty in the Unicorn Project for cash of $8.5 million, and to inject new equity of up to $1.5 million into Dart.
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