Dundas Minerals to drill namesake nickel and gold project this month
Dundas Minerals raised $6 million in an oversubscribed IPO to explore its “exciting” nickel, copper and gold ground in WA’s Albany-Fraser Orogen.
A day after its ASX listing, Dundas Minerals (ASX: DUN) has revealed plans for a maiden reverse circulation drilling program to begin later this month at its namesake project in Western Australia’s southern Albany-Fraser Orogen where it will primarily test for nickel and gold.
The company joined ASX ranks yesterday after raising $6 million in an oversubscribed IPO to fund its exploration plans at its “exciting” nickel, copper and gold ground which all lies in the Albany-Fraser Orogen region.
Dundas raised the $6 million via the issue of 30 million shares at $0.20 each.
Sought-after mineral district
The IPO and ASX listing give investors exposure to Dundas’ 1,152 square kilometres of ground in the Orogen, which Dundas describes as one of the state’s “most sought-after mineral districts”.
This district hosts AngloGold Ashanti’s (ASX: AGG) and Regis Resources’ (ASX: RRL) Tropicana gold mine and IGO’s (ASX: IGO) Nova nickel operation.
Dundas managing director Shane Volk said the company’s ASX-listing marked the start of what will be an “exciting exploration journey” for the company.
“Technical director Tim Hronsky has led the way in securing Dundas’ large tenement position in the southern Albany-Fraser Orogen in an area remarkably devoid of exploration activity since 2012 – the year that Sirius Resources discovered the rich Nova nickel deposit a mere 120km away.”
Previous exploration at Dundas
According to the company, no modern techniques have been applied at Dundas and the asset has not been actively explored since 2012.
The company noted that any exploration at the project also occurred prior to Sirius’ discovery of Nova.
Historic exploration at Dundas had focused on gold and comprised sampling, aircore and rotary airblast drilling, with a limited amount of RC drilling also.
The historical work identified a number of nickel and gold anomalies, but these were never tested at depth or expanded on with subsequent programs.
Strategy for advancing Dundas
Dundas’ maiden RC program is due to kick-off at the namesake project late this month.
The project comprises 11 tenements and drilling will initially focus on two prospects – Jumbuck and Kokoda.
Drilling will start at Jumbuck and focus on nickel mineralisation. The upcoming program will follow up on a historic hole that drilled to a 22m depth and hit 5,490 parts per million nickel at the end of hole.
The program will then move to Kokoda to test for gold. Previous exploration at Kokoda had uncovered a 4km gold-copper trend.