Dart assays put antimony in frame at Victorian play

A Dart Mining field survey, after a review of historic records, has confirmed antimony mineralisation at the Tallandoon prospects within its Rushworth project area in Victoria, with waste rock from two old mines showing significant signs of stibnite.

During a recent two-day reconnaissance mission, the company collected 20 samples from the waste dumps surrounding the historic Carry On and Antimony mines. Using a portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) device, a sample taken from Carry On displayed big, elongated crystals of stibnite within the quartz, while a sample from Antimony showed parallel veinlets of stibnite that marry up with earlier samples from 2020, which returned antimony concentrations of up to 6.48 per cent.

A grab sample from the Carry On mine waste dump at Dart Mining’s Tallandoon antimony prospect showing massive sulphide antimony mineralisation within quartz veining.

With the antimony showing up as massive sulphide and in crystalised form, further results from the multi-element analysis of the samples are expected shortly and may shed more light on the full potential of the historic mining region.

‘The Company eagerly awaits the assay results to confirm the concentration of antimony, following positive Antimony identification from initial pXRF results.’

Dart Mining chairman James Chirnside

Dart Mining chairman James Chirnside said: “Field activities conducted at the Tallandoon Historic Goldfield reconfirm the prospectivity of the Tallandoon area as a very prospective region for antimony mineralisation. The Company eagerly awaits the assay results to confirm the concentration of antimony, following positive Antimony identification from initial pXRF results.”

The Antimony prospect was discovered in the early 1900s and was in production between 1914 and 1945. The deposit is highlighted by biotite schists, a common variety of mica, and several granite-style dykes.

The antimony at the Carry On workings appears to feature as massive sulphide stibnite mineralisation linked to the boundaries of the dykes in sections up to 1.2m wide and as quartz reefs at the Antimony Mine, together with abundant stibnite, arsenopyrite, sphalerite and galena.

The overall area is crosscut by large-scale secondary faults from the Lochart Gap Fault, forming quartz reefs in a north-west to south-east orientation.

The Rushworth project is close to major antimony deposits including the Costerfield gold-antimony mine, which produces most of Australia’s antimony. Lying directly to the south of Dart’s project area are the antimony-rich Whroo and Redcastle projects, operated jointly by Southern Cross Gold and Nagambie Resources, which recently reported a maiden resource of 17,800 tonnes of contained antimony.

The report of Dart’s antimony findings in northern Victoria has also coincided with the recent news that the company has jumped into the 118,000-ounce Triumph gold project in Queensland for $1 million in cash and $1 million in shares.

The intrusion-related project finds itself in good company sitting between the 2.8 million-ounce Mt Rawdon mine and the 8 million-ounce Mt Morgan mine, with the immediate area having a rich history of gold discovery dating back more than 150 years.

Dart sees immediate potential for both high-grade vein and large-scale gold deposits within the tenements that have had more than $8 million spent on exploration. The company will assume a further 44 holes for a total of 3695m in drilling, which are yet to be incorporated into the resource model, but will now be included in an updated estimate once the project purchase transaction is completed.

As Dart continues to focus on gold and now antimony– the prices of which have rocketed away in the past year – new results due in the next few months from both projects are likely to be keenly watched.

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