Dart Mining nears start of Resource upgrade drilling at Unicorn with drilling contractor appointment

Dart Mining (ASX: DTM) has secured drilling contractor Techdrill Services to carry out a resource upgrade drilling program at the Unicorn Deposit in northeast Victoria.

Drilling is planned to close the spacing between drill holes within the upper 250 metres of the deposit and upgrade the current Indicated and Inferred Resources.

As part of the program, which is scheduled to begin in late February, the southern margin of the mineralisation, which will form the high wall of any future open pit, will be tested to determine the optimal pit size.

The southern mineralised breccia, sediments and rhyolite surrounding the Unicorn porphyry will be tested. Only limited testing of these zones has previously been carried out due to drill access restrictions along the main ridge line.

The maiden Indicated and Inferred Resource of 105 million tonnes at 0.07% molybdenum equivalent does not include mineralisation surrounding the porphyry.

With approval to construct drill access tracks Dart can better test the near surface potential of the deposit and is optimistic the resource base can be increased.

The company is aiming to release an updated Resource in the September quarter of this year.


Unicorn-Morgan Mineralisation Corridor

Dart is also following up the recommendations made following a full review of the regional geochemical survey of the northern half of the tenements.

Initial focus will be to follow up anomalies along the Unicorn-Morgan mineralisation corridor, highlighted as a key exploration target, to locate additional Unicorn-style porphyry targets.

Dart’s Morgan project, some 7 kilometres from Unicorn, has proven itself to be a large molybdenum-silver system with limited drilling already showing significant molybdenum-silver anomalism associated with rhyolitic porphyry dykes of similar rock type to Unicorn above what is interpreted to be a buried porphyry system.

Follow up work, which will be ongoing during 2012, will comprise infill stream sediment sampling and targeted soil sampling traverses across individual anomalies.


Strong Investor Backing

Dart recently raised A$1.54 million from the exercise and underwriting of 15.4 million listed options at $0.10 each to fund further drilling at the Unicorn Deposit and for working capital.

Tellingly, 67%, or 10.4 million, of the options were exercised on or before the 31 December 2011 expiry by shareholders, raising about $1.04 million of the funds.

Bell Potter Securities agreed to underwrite the full 15.4 million listed options and has made valid applications for the remaining 5 million options not exercised, raising a further $503,979.

Dart Mining’s bank balance has now grown to $2.4 million.

Originally published at: http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/24151/dart-mining-nears-start-of-resource-upgrade-drilling-at-unicorn-with-drilling-contractor-appointment--24151.html