Dundas Minerals completes airborne survey over entire nickel-copper-PGE project area
Dundas managing director Shane Volk said the geophysical data was “extremely encouraging and exciting”.
Just nine days after listing, Dundas Minerals (ASX: DUN) has completed an airborne electromagnetic survey over its entire 1,106sq km project area in the Southern Albany-Fraser Orogen (AFO) of Western Australia.
The company is exploring for nickel, copper, platinum group elements and gold across the project with three target areas having now been chosen for immediate in-fill gravity surveys.
“Arrangements are being finalised to complete this work as quickly as possible, either prior to year-end or early in the new year,” the company stated.
Dundas is exploring a part of the AFO lying southeast of Norseman.
Region first hit headlines with major Tropicana gold discovery
The AFO first came to international attention in 2005, with the discovery by AngloGold Ashanti (ASX: AGG) of the 8 million ounce Tropicana gold deposit.
That triggered a rush of pegging by companies looking for secure ground within the AFO.
As Dundas has noted, although long recognised for its exploration potential, the AFO lay relatively underexplored before the Tropicana discovery due to its remoteness.
In July 2012, the AFO again hit the headlines with discovery of the Nova nickel-copper-cobalt deposit by the former Sirius Resources. The following year Sirius made the major Bollinger discovery.
Sirius was acquired for $1.8 billion in 2015 by Independence Group (ASX: IGO).
Exploration targets lie under up to 30m of cover
Dundas’ project area is overlain by recent sand, calcrete and immature sedimentary rocks varying in thickness from 5m to 30m.
The average depth of historic drilling is 25m which, the company says, leaves “considerable uncertainty” as to the underlying bedrock and mineralisation, which have been largely untested.
Dundas managing director Shane Volk says initial analysis of the new geophysical data set is “extremely encouraging and exciting”.
“Upon realising the significance of these early results, we immediately contacted the geophysical survey contractor to arrange for in-fill gravity surveys on these three high priority areas — as quickly as possible,” he added.
The aim of the in-fill work is to gain a more precise understanding of target depths and dimensions, which Mr Volk says are vital for future drill testing.