Dart Mining NL (ASX:DTM) is dominating Victoria’s exploration landscape as it works to uncover some of the state’s most prolific minerals.
The low-cost explorer is out to find a bevy of precious and base metals in Australia’s southeast and is advancing a multi-stage exploration portfolio in the region.
It’s a largely diversified play, with 15 of the 32 minerals identified by Geoscience Australia as “critical” represented within Dart’s exploration footprint.
As it prepares to launch into the new year, Dart is gearing up for a busy field-work season — one that includes drilling, surveying and soil sampling activities.
So what’s the investment case for this multi-element explorer, and what’s in the pipeline for 2022?
Dart Mining’s projects.
Company snapshot
Dart Mining’s endeavours are tied to a three-pronged exploration approach.
The explorer is out to find orogenic gold, strategic and technology metals such as lithium, tantalum, tungsten and tin along with porphyry base metals like molybdenum, copper, lead and zinc.
It’s prospecting for these minerals across a large Victorian tenement package, spanning about 6,000 square kilometres.
With a focus on northeast, east and central Northern Victoria, the company has a hand in five exploration regions, tied to gold, strategic metals and porphyry base and precious metals.
What’s more, much of Dart’s tenure makes up a considerable footprint in the central and southern Lachlan Fold Belt, an iconic mineralised region that remains underexplored.
Several of the explorer’s projects are in the target testing stage — including the Granite Flat copper-gold porphyry asset, the Dorchap lithium play and the Buckland Orogenic gold camp.
An overview of Dart's exploration assets.
Looking ahead, the ASX-listed explorer is well funded to keep the drill bit turning across its diversified portfolio.
Earlier this year, Dart completed an oversubscribed $2.7 million placement, bringing in fresh capital to support exploration across its flagship properties in Victoria’s northeast.
Speaking to the raise, Dart chairman and managing director James Chirnside said: “We are grateful for the excellent support provided to us by new and existing shareholders in this placement.
“We are excited to be able to accelerate progress on the company’s flagship projects at the Granite Flat copper-gold porphyry and Dorchap lithium prospects”.
The five exploration regions in Dart’s portfolio.
Granite Flat copper-gold asset
Dart’s Granite Flat prospect is nine kilometres southeast of the Mitta Mitta township in Victoria’s northeast.
Historically, the prospect was mined at several small production centres between 1856 and 1918, following an initial discovery identified by tracing the source of alluvial gold in the Mitta River upstream.
Previous explorers have targeted the area with geophysical surveys, rock chip, soil and stream sediment sampling, as well as drilling and trenching.
Interestingly, historical soil grids have established several large, strong copper-gold anomalies that have seen variable drilling efforts across the prospect.
Granite Flat is host to more than 109 historical and contemporary drill holes and recently became the subject of Dart’s maiden diamond drilling program.
The asset remains open in all directions, with an additional soil expansion program underway.
Earlier this year, Dart completed a series of field-work and drilling activities at the copper-gold property, honing in on a bevy of prospective targets.
Some of the best results to date include:
Gold
- 19 metres at 9.39 g/t gold, including 3 metres at 41.1 g/t from 28 metres; and
- 4 metres at 3.23 g/t, including 1-metre at 7.84 g/t from 15 metres
Copper
- 19 metres at 0.61% copper, including 3 metres at 1.52%;
- 28 metres at 0.35%, including 9 metres at 0.73% from 7 metres;
- 40 metres at 0.11%, including 19 metres at 0.18% from 35 metres;
- 138 metres at 0.09% from surface; and
- 111 metres at 0.07% from surface.
Map of Granite Flat and surrounding Dart tenements.
Speaking to Granite Flat’s potential back in October, Chirnside said: “Almost every corner we turn at Granite Flat gives us higher levels of confidence and encouragement.
“We are particularly buoyed by the alteration zones and associated silica-sulphide mineralisation from recent diamond drilling.
“We recognise an immediate need for commencement of a deep diamond drill program into the recently defined geophysical targets as soon as practical.”
Dorchap lithium play
There’s more to this explorer’s portfolio than precious and base metals.
Dart Mining geologists first identified the lithium prospectivity of pegmatite dykes in Victoria’s Dorchap Range in 2016 and set about acquiring exploration leases across the region.
These represent the first recorded lithium pegmatites identified in Victoria and are believed to have been sourced from the nearby Mount Wills Granite.
A regional sampling program — consisting of 826 samples — has identified a strong, fractionation trend across the Dorchap Range, resolving a 20-kilometre by 12-kilometre zone pegmatites bearing enriched lithium, caesium, tantalum, beryllium and tin mineralisation.
Dart’s chip sampling program has also seen gathered rewarding results, including 16 metres at more than 530 parts per million (ppm) caesium oxide, 0.32% lithium oxide and 104 ppm tantalum oxide.
In early October, Chirnside said of the asset: “Dart has ramped up exploration activities around its extensive Dorchap Lithium project in Northeast Victoria.
“A recently completed LiDAR survey across the dyke swarm has uncovered numerous previously unidentified pegmatite dykes for further investigation.
“Extensive mapping and surface sampling have resumed which has allowed us to focus on a very clear fractionation trend of lithium-enriched pegmatites dykes for drill testing.”
Buckland orogenic gold camp
Beyond Dorchap’s lithium potential, Dart has its eye trained on orogenic gold opportunities.
One of those is the Buckland asset, which forms part of the 6.9-million-ounce Rutherglen-Beechworth-Harrietville gold district — a region renowned for primary and alluvial gold production.
This shear-hosted, orogenic gold system shows evidence of extensive, shallow primary workings, but low primary gold production.
So far, 17.5 kilometres of strike has been identified from roughly 7,500 surface samples, while multiple, parallel structures have also been identified.
What’s more, Buckland bears strong similarities to Bendigo- and Fosterville-style gold mineralisation — some of Victoria’s most lauded gold producers.
All in all, Buckland hosts considerable upside, with multiple mineralisation styles present across the gold property.
What’s next?
There’s an extensive work program lined up for Dart’s portfolio in 2022.
Work planned for the new year.
At Granite Flat, Dart hopes to complete a soil sampling program and 2,500 metres of low impact reverse circulation (RC) drilling in the first half of the new year.
It also wants to continue a 1,200-metre diamond drilling campaign.
Over at the Buckland property, soil sampling, RC and diamond drilling is also planned, as well as a geophysics survey to further define targets.
Looking ahead, a 1,500-metre RC campaign is also pencilled in for the Dorchap camp, targeting several lithium-bearing pegmatites.
Programs are also in the works for some of the company’s other assets.
At the Eskdale lithium pegmatites, Dart plans to conduct low-impact RC drilling, mapping and sampling, while a geophysics program is slated for its Stacey’s target at the Corryong porphyries.
In the second half of the year, the explorer is readying for further RC and diamond drilling, geophysical surveys and regional mapping across its Buckland, Corryong, Rushworth and Walwa projects.
There’s also a resource drilling program planned for Eskdale and a mining proposal pegged to the Mountain View orogenic gold camp.
The bottom line
All in all, Dart’s upcoming exploration program paves the way for further target discoveries across its Victorian portfolio.
The company’s focus on critical minerals could one day see it deliver assets that stand to play an integral role in battery, base and precious metal production.
With the rise and resurgence of the global pandemic putting further strain on global supply chains, local producers are poised to a bigger role than ever before.
Thanks to its holding in one of the nation’s most iconic regions, Dart is ready to keep turning the soil on orogenic gold, lithium and porphyry base and precious metal discoveries.
As it heads into the new year, the critical minerals explorer will keep the market informed of its exploration endeavours throughout 2022.