Fire Bans Delay Critical IP Survey Completion at Coonambula Project
Dart Mining’s preliminary IP survey at the Coonambula project reveals promising extensions of the Banshee antimony-gold mineralisation, setting the stage for expanded drilling and resource modelling.
- Preliminary IP survey highlights strike extensions and fault offsets at Banshee
- Survey covers 12 of 15 planned lines; completion delayed by fire bans
- Historical drilling and sampling show high-grade antimony and gold
- Farm-in joint venture with Great Divide Mining progressing exploration
- Plans include further drilling, channel sampling, and 3D resource modelling
Exploration Advances at Coonambula
Dart Mining NL (ASX, DTM) has announced encouraging early results from an ongoing Induced Polarisation (IP) geophysical survey at its Coonambula Antimony-Gold Project in Central Queensland. The survey, funded by a Queensland Government grant, aims to delineate extensions of the historically mined Banshee mineralised trend, a key target within the project’s farm-in joint venture with Great Divide Mining (ASX, GDM).
The preliminary interpretation of 12 completed survey lines reveals a subtle but significant chargeability anomaly extending eastward beyond previously drilled areas. Notably, the western end of the anomaly appears offset northward, suggesting a potential fault disrupting the mineralised system and opening new exploration targets along strike.
Technical Insights and Historical Context
The IP survey employs a dipole-dipole configuration with 25-meter dipole spacing, designed to detect quartz vein-hosted antimony and gold mineralisation down to approximately 200 meters depth. This approach improves upon a 2012 gradient array survey, which was less effective at identifying narrow, sub-vertical mineralised zones.
Historical drilling and surface sampling at Banshee and nearby prospects like Lady Mary have returned high-grade assays, including antimony concentrations exceeding 65% and gold grades up to 17 grams per tonne. These results underscore the project’s potential to host economically significant mineralisation within a 5-kilometer prospective strike zone.
Next Steps and Strategic Outlook
Dart Mining plans to complete the remaining three IP survey lines once fire bans are lifted, followed by comprehensive interpretation of the full dataset. Concurrently, the company intends to continue drilling along the Banshee trend, conduct channel sampling of in-situ mineralised exposures, and refine its drill targeting based on the new geophysical insights.
Ultimately, Dart aims to develop a three-dimensional geological model of the mineralisation and, if warranted by results, declare a JORC-compliant resource. Chairman James Chirnside highlighted the importance of these findings in the context of growing global demand for critical minerals, positioning Coonambula as a timely and strategic asset within Dart’s Queensland portfolio.
While no new assay results from current drilling have been released yet, the integration of geophysical data with historical exploration sets a solid foundation for advancing the project through its next phases.
Bottom Line?
As Dart Mining deepens its exploration at Coonambula, the market will watch closely for drilling results that could unlock a new critical minerals resource.
Questions in the middle?
- Will the final IP survey lines confirm the interpreted fault offset and strike extensions?
- How soon can Dart Mining deliver assay results from ongoing drilling at Banshee?
- What scale of JORC resource might emerge from integrating new geophysical and drilling data?
