Dante is blooming for Terra Metals with new mineralisation style discovered

• New titanium-vanadium-copper-cobalt-PGE reefs found at Dante project in WA
• Reefs at Southwest Prospect represent a new form of mineralisation at the project
• Potential closely watched due to having reef packages several times thicker than basal reefs within Dante resource

Special Report: Terra Metals’ drilling has added a new form of mineralisation to its Dante project in WA’s West Musgrave region with the discovery of multiple titanium-vanadium-copper-cobalt-PGE sulphide reefs.

Notable assays from drilling at Southwest Prospect SW3 include:

• 59m grading 0.95% copper equivalent and 172ppm cobalt from 131m including 31m at 1.14% CuEq and 198ppm Co from 139m;
• 61m at 0.7% CuEq from surface including 4m at 0.54% CuEq, 1228ppm Co and 0.16% nickel from 5m and 13m at 1.01% CuEq and 177ppm Co from 19m; and
• 58m at 0.55% CuEq and 185ppm Co from 6m including 9m at 0.91% CuEq and 194ppm Co from 20m.

Assays have been received from just eight of the 49 holes completed to date.

Terra Metals (ASX:TM1) notes the Southwest Reefs differ from the Reef 1 and Reef 2 resource as they feature thick, continuous reef packages up to 58m – about 11 times thicker than the ~5m basal reef within the current 148Mt resource.

There’s also increasing evidence of mafic–ultramafic geology due to the higher sulphide content, locally high-grade cobalt, nickel sulphide and dominance of palladium.

Potential has also been identified for massive and semi-massive Cu-Ni-PGE-Co sulphide mineralisation.

The emergence of cobalt as a key component could be hugely beneficial as prices have risen by ~99.9% year on year to >US$48,750/t.

Expanding scale

Managing director Thomas Line said the early results confirming a new titanium-sulphide reef system marked an important milestone for the company.

“The combination of thick, sulphide-rich reef packages and encouraging copper–nickel–cobalt and PGE values points to strong potential to expand the scale and diversity of mineralisation within the Dante system,” he added.

“With more than forty drillholes still to be reported, and recently observed visual sulphides in diamond drilling (assays pending) our focus now is on systematic follow-up drilling to define the geometry and continuity of these new reefs.”

The Southwest Prospect is a 12km2 target area that represents one of the most compelling growth opportunities across the broader Jameson Layered Intrusion within the Dante project.

While it was first identified in historical datasets, it is only now being systematically tested for the first time.

Historical soil and auger sampling returned the second-highest PGM anomaly across the Dante project.

Adding interest, historical BHP datasets identified a cluster of high-ranking EM anomalies, supported by new modelling highlighting a dynamic structural and geological setting.

Recent fieldwork has also mapped a further 5.2km of new reef that is not included in prior strike length estimates.

Ongoing mapping continues to expand the mineralised footprint, underscoring the scale and open-ended potential of the prospect.

Watch more from TM1: Visual sulphides open a new frontier at Dante

Testing and refinement

TM1 will carry out petrography, SEM/BSE and EDS mapping to determine mineral hosts and magmatic overprints.

It will also carry out magnetic separation and DTR testwork to quantify iron-titanium-vanadium recovery potential.

Alpha–beta magmatic layering discs will be integrated into cross-sections for geometry modelling.

Other work the company will carry out includes DHEM and gravity surveys over sulphide-rich zones to identify off-hole conductors and continue iterative integration of structural, petrographic and assay data to distinguish stratiform versus conduit-controlled mineralisation.

This article was developed in collaboration with Terra Metals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.