Dundas Minerals Ltd (ASX:DUN) has obtained heritage clearance from Ngadju Native Title Aboriginal Corporation (NNTAC) for planned exploration drilling programs at its Central and Matilda South prospects in Western Australia.
As a holder of the exclusive native title rights over the areas covered by the majority of Dundas’ tenements, the NNTAC entered into a heritage protection agreement with the company that sets out the protocols for the joint inspection of locations where the company is proposing to conduct ground-disturbing activities, such as drilling.
Moving forward, NNTAC has now advised the company that it has fully cleared the sites and that there is no objection to the Dundas planned drill program.
Drill program
The timing for the commencement of drilling at Central and Matilda South remains subject to:
- the approval of work programs by the Western Australian Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS); and
- remediation of key access tracks that have deteriorated due to the onset of heavy autumn and winter rains.
Dundas will advise as soon as a firm date is available for the commencement of drilling, which will likely be determined by the timing of access track remediation work.
Matilda South prospect
The Matilda South (nickel/copper) exploration prospect is a large gravity anomaly identified from the company’s first-ever scale gravity survey in the region.
The anomaly is interpreted as due to intrusive mafic or ultramafic rock types, and a shallow historical drill hole of 31 metres completed by Goldport Pty Ltd in 2005 (following earlier soil geochemical anomalies) was logged as having a bottom-of-hole intersection of intermediate/mafic pluton or pyroxene granulite, which supports the company’s interpretation.
Encouraged by the gravity survey results, the historical drill hole log and geochemical anomalies, a detailed in-fill gravity survey were commissioned by Dundas in December 2021.
The exploration model for Matilda South is magmatic sulphide mineralisation associated with a mafic-ultramafic intrusion, similar to the Nova-Bollinger deposit which is around 150 kilometres to the north-north-east of Matilda South.
Central target
The Central exploration target is situated within the company’s North-East prospect area.
As with Matilda South, this area was identified from the project-wide gravity survey completed by Dundas in October 2021.
This survey identified the Central target as having correlated gravity, magnetic and SkyTEM (electromagnetic) geophysical anomalies, and worthy of more detailed exploration.