Dart Mining acquires Triumph gold project from Sunshine Metals for $2m

Dart Mining (ASX: DTM) will pay a total of $2 million to acquire the high-grade Triumph gold project in Queensland from Sunshine Metals (ASX: SHN).

The consideration will be split into $1m in cash and $1m in ordinary Dart shares, representing an acquisition cost of less than $17 per ounce.

The price is believed to be below the discovery cost and towards the lower end of recent on-market transactions.

Regional entry point

Dart chair James Chirnside said the deal would provide the company with an entry point into the under-explored Central Queensland region.

“This will be our first significant project outside Victoria and reflects our strategy to expand into advanced intrusion-related and epithermal gold developments in Queensland while continuing to progress our prospective gold and porphyry projects in Victoria,” he said.

“The importance of acquiring a significant gold resource with considerable scope for expansion cannot be underestimated.”

He added that Queensland’s favourable prospectivity for million-ounce-plus gold deposits would complement Dart’s flagship Granite Flat project, which includes the Mitta Mitta, Buckland, Corryong, Rushworth and Buchan targets.

Advanced system

Triumph is an advanced intrusive-related gold system comprising two exploration permits over 137.6 square kilometres of the historic Norton goldfield.

Sunshine has owned the project since December 2020 and has completed several drilling campaigns to define an initial inferred resource of approximately 118,000oz grading at 2.03 grams per tonne.

More than 85% of the resource is believed to sit within 100m of the surface with only 25% of the interpreted structure drilled.

Best intersections to date include 10m at 26.86g/t gold from 51m, 16m at 8.44g/t from 38m and 4m at 27.12g/t from 43m.

Accumulated exploration expenditure of more than $8m by Triumph’s previous owners — including over 40,000m of drilling — is expected to allow Dart to focus on resource drilling to rapidly grow the project.

Capital raising

Dart has launched a $3.1m capital raising via a two-tranche share placement and related entitlement issue to fund the Triumph acquisition.

Professional and sophisticated investors have subscribed for up to 148.5 million new shares at an issue price of $0.012 each to raise $1.8m, subject to shareholder approval.

The price represents a 21.9% discount to Dart’s 15-day volume-weighted average price of $0.015.

The non-renounceable entitlement issue will raise a further $1.3m on the basis of one share for every three shares, also priced at $0.012.

Funds raised will be used for acquisition costs and to progress exploration and resource definition diamond drilling at the project.

Ravenswood focus

The divestment of Triumph will allow Sunshine to focus on its flagship Ravenswood Consolidated project in Queensland’s Northern New England Orogen, which has historically produced over 20Moz of gold and 14Mt of volcanic massive sulphides ore (zinc-copper-lead).

Sunshine managing director Dr Damien Keys said the 1,760-square-kilometre project holds significant exploration potential for Dart.

“When completed, this transaction will represent a win-win for both businesses,” he said.

“Ravenswood is our core focus and has a substantial high-grade gold-base metal resource and a plethora of exciting large-scale exploration targets including Liontown, where extensional diamond drilling is well underway and assays are expected next month.”