Dalaroo Metals (ASX:DAL) reports it has received an Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) grant of $175,000 to co-fund a drill test of PGE-nickel-copper-gold mineralisation at the Namban Project in Western Australia.
The EIS provided by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) will cover 50% of the drilling costs, and the company plans to drill 5 diamond core holes to confirm the presence of magmatic hosted PGE-nickel-copper-gold mineralisation and hydrothermal deposits north of Goneville and Julimar, and the recent discovery of gold-copper mineralisation at Angepena, Mynt and Zest located 10km to the southeast.
Dalaroo Managing Director Harjinder Kehal said this is a great outcome for both shareholders of Dalaroo and the general mining community.
“These grants from the government allow the deployment of capital to discover new deposits and prove up new geological models.
“These grants from the government allow the deployment of capital to discover new deposits and prove up new geological models”
This added investment in exploration in the wheat belt region will enhance our ability to find new mineral deposits and meet demand for critical green metals, such as nickel and platinum group elements.”
A Programme of Work for the diamond drill program has been approved by DMIRS and Dalaroo has entered into a land access agreement with a local farmer for the granting of surface mineral rights.
Dalaroo’s Namban Project is described by the company as an underexplored group package 150km north-northeast of Perth in the Southwest Terrane of the Archaean Yilgarn Craton.
The project covers a strike distance of 60km adjacent to the crustal-scale Darling Fault which defines the western margin of the craton.
Dalaroo reports exploration activity in the Southwest Terrane has increased since the discovery of the Goneville and Julimar magmatic PGE-nickel-copper discovery in April 2020, leading to a re-rating of the mineral prospectivity of the area.
Recent exploration programs in this area have returned additional quality greenfield drill intersections, not only for magmatic nickel sulphide as at Caspin Resources’ Yarawindah Brook Project, but also gold and copper at Minerals 260’s Moora Project.
The company says the ‘wide’ variety of mineralisation intersections further underpins the prospectivity of the Southern Terrane, however current geological understanding of the area remains in its infancy.
It also notes the common pathway leading to these new greenfields drill intersections was the testing of surface multi-element surface geochemistry anomalism aligning with geophysical anomalies.
Dalaroo says there has been no previous drilling completed at the Manning Prospect and its surrounds to date, and all previous exploration activities have been completed at the Bindi Bindi area located to the east.
To the north and south of the Manning Prospect, historical exploration was centred on the search for talc deposits in the Moora Talc Belt.
It reports no modern systematic exploration has been undertaken over the Namban area for PGE-nickel-copper-gold mineralisation until the recent work completed by the company.
The geology of the project area comprises the Proterozoic age Moora Group rocks, which occur in a strip between the crustal scale Darling Fault and the Archaean granite gneisses in the east.
The main rocks of the Moora Group that outcrop comprise Billeranga Sub-group-Dalaroo Siltstone and Coomberdale Sub-group-Noondine Chert.
The Billeranga sub-group contains volcaniclastic components postulated to have been deposited during a failed Proterozoic Rift.
The Dalaroo Siltstones unconformably overlies the Archaean crust at a shallow angle.
Within the Archaean felsic gneiss package, zones of hematite ± epidote ± chlorite alteration have been observed.
The Manning PGE-copper-nickel-gold anomaly lies on or near the terrain boundary between Archaean-age gneisses and mafic rocks and the Billeranga Sub-group Dalaroo Siltstones to the west.
Dalaroo reports newly acquired generative datasets and encouraging results achieved include detailed drone UAV surveys which have identified multiple magnetic anomalies.
It also says systematic auger geochemical sampling at Manning, spaced on a pattern of 100m by 50m and 200m by 50m has led to the recognition of a large coincident PGE-copper-nickel-gold anomaly which covers an area of 2km by 0.5km which remains open at strike.
The palladium anomaly with a peak value of 28ppb is coincident with copper (peak value of 605ppm) and nickel anomalism (peak value of 206ppm).
At Manning, the company reports gold values up to 43ppb occur in the west, complementing first phase soil geochemical gold values of up to 224ppb in the east.
A Dipole Dipole Induced Polarisation (DDIP) survey conducted by the company of 6.8 line km has delineated a number of ‘high chargeability) IP anomalies which are postulated to represent a disseminated sulphide body at depth.
It also says the Manning mineralisation anomaly overlies a coincident induced polarisation (30mV/V conductive) response along the edge of a positive magnetic ‘intrusive like’ feature.
According to Dalaroo, this combination supports the project’s prospectivity for magmatic intrusion PGE-nickel-copper deposits or potentially, a hydrothermal style variant or phase in a likely mafic intrusive host rock.
At Manning, Dalaroo’s consulting geophysicist Core Geophysics has recommended additional IP as per the original planned survey when full access is available in late November, which will further validate the chargeable anomalies with diamond drill testing for primary sulphide PGE-nickel-copper-gold mineralisation at Manning to be undertaken thereafter during December, or early in the March quarter of 2023.
The Namban Project comprises a ground package totalling 437km-square located in the mid-north part of the Western Australian wheatbelt region, deemed by Dalaroo to be prospective for magmatic intrusion related nickel-copper-PGE deposits.
Dalaroo Metals is a Western Australia-based base metals exploration company with projects including the Namban Nickel-Copper Project and the Lyons River Lead-Zinc-Copper Project.
