Key Highlights

  • Assays from 20 reverse circulation holes totalling 3,166 metres are reported from the Kalgoorlie gold projects.
  • The batch covers 15 holes at Capricorn and the final five Stage 2 holes at Rockland.
  • The drilling forms part of a 5,000-metre programme that began in September.
  • Results at the southern targets were mixed, with resource-definition drilling still ahead.

Dundas Minerals (ASX:DUN) has reported assays from 20 reverse circulation holes for 3,166 metres at its Kalgoorlie gold projects, about 40 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The batch covers 15 holes at Capricorn and the final five Stage 2 holes at Rockland, both on granted Mining leases, and forms part of a 5,000-metre programme that began in September.

The results are modest in grade but useful in defining where the gold sits today.

Capricorn: depth extension on the eastern side

Capricorn hosts an Inferred resource of 659,300 tonnes at 1.2 grams per tonne gold, originally reported by Horizon Minerals (ASX:HRZ) in 2022. Inferred is the lowest-confidence resource category, so infill and extension drilling is needed before any part could support mine planning.

Hole 26CRC014 was drilled from the east to test the down-dip extension of the east-dipping mineralisation. It returned 10 metres at 1.1 g/t from 138 metres, including 1 metre at 5.51 g/t, with further narrower intervals at 127 and 153 metres. Three holes on a line inside the existing drilling all intersected shallow mineralisation, including 16 metres at 0.8 g/t from 28 metres in 26CRC012 and 4 metres at 2.2 g/t from 36 metres in 26CRC011.

The southern part of the deposit was less encouraging. Of nine holes there, six returned no significant result, and the best was 8 metres at 0.9 g/t from 28 metres. On current drilling, Dundas says mineralisation appears to weaken to the south. Assays from four northern holes are pending, and a vertical hole that did not reach its target will be extended later.

Rockland: consistent but lower grades

At Rockland, seven of eight Stage 2 holes have now intersected gold. The final five returned 12 metres at 1.0 g/t from 104 metres, including 4 metres at 2.5 g/t, in 26RKRC014, and 10 metres at 0.6 g/t from 88 metres in 26RKRC018. One hole returned nothing significant.

Four holes drilled within 70 metres of an earlier high-grade hit, 3 metres at 6.94 g/t, intersected mineralisation in three cases but at lower grades. That pattern is common in gold systems, where high-grade shoots can be narrow and discontinuous.

Managing director Jonathan Downes said seven of the eight holes had intersected gold and that the southern line around hole 26RKRC011, which earlier returned 12 metres at 1.25 g/t and 4 metres at 4.87 g/t, continued to stand out. One-metre re-assays of composites from that line are pending.

Why location matters

Both projects sit on granted mining leases within trucking distance of Kalgoorlie's processing plants. For small deposits, that proximity can make toll treatment or ore sale agreements a realistic route to production without building a mill. However, such arrangements depend on grade, tonnage and mill availability, and Dundas has not announced any processing agreement.

Points of caution

Many of the reported intervals are four-metre composite samples, which blend consecutive one-metre samples. Re-assaying individual metres can move grades in either direction. Reported lengths are downhole, although Dundas interprets them as approximating true width for the angled holes. None of the 2026 results has yet been incorporated into a resource estimate.

Dundas also describes an interpreted north-south mineralised corridor from Rockland through Capricorn, but drilling has not established continuity between the two.

What comes next

The rig is due back at Rockland within about two weeks for further resource-definition and extension drilling. Remaining Capricorn assays, the one-metre re-assays and results from Baden-Powell are expected through the December quarter, after which the geological models will be updated.

For a small explorer, the Investment case rests on whether this drilling can add enough ounces at sufficient grade to support a mining or toll-treatment pathway near Kalgoorlie's established infrastructure. The next resource update will be the clearest test of that.