Daly Resources confirms Hot Springs as priority target in NT

• Independent regional review identifies multiple high-priority targets
• Study endorse Hot Spring as company’s priority target at Batten
• Standout new target area at the large Berjaya corridor
• Daly geologists currently field-checking priority regional targets

Daly Resources (ASX: DLY) has named Hot Springs as its priority exploration target after expert studies of the Batten project in the Northern Territory.

Analysis undertaken by global consultancy ERM has provided an independent, project-wide assessment of the Batten project and its regional target pipeline.

The review was undertaken by industry-leading geologists with direct field and research experience in the sediment-hosted zinc systems of the McArthur Basin.

The review re-examined decades of historical exploration data across the 1,124 sq. km project using a mineral systems approach. It defined 22 targets and areas of interest prospective for McArthur River-style zinc-lead (silver) mineralisation, eleven of which are ranked Priority 1.

The review concluded that the Batten Trough remains under-explored. Shallowly dipping host sequences and limited effective subsurface testing have left high residual prospectivity in a fault zone that hosts the world-class McArthur River (HYC) deposit and the high-grade Teena deposit.

The priority targets combine conductive responses in historical AEM surveys with pathfinder geochemistry and favourable sub-basin geology. Several priority targets have never been drill tested.

Executive chairman, Mike Edwards, said Hot Spring remains the focus of near-term activity, with soil sampling completed and environmental approval for drilling in place. Behind it, the Berjaya Corridor gives the company a second, district-scale target area.

“We engaged ERM, a team with deep hands-on experience of the McArthur River district, to take a fresh, independent look at Batten, and the outcome has been very positive,” Mr Edwards said.

“Decades of historical exploration data have been re-examined through a modern mineral systems framework, and the result is a pipeline of high-priority targets backed by geophysics, geochemistry and geology that will be keeping the team busy.

“Hot Spring remains our lead target, and the review supports that. The appraisal has also changed how we see the Bald Hills structure. Our interpretation is that it is offset rather than continuing due west, which puts the Berjaya corridor directly along its trend. That is a new way of looking at the project and opens up ground that has seen very little effective drilling.

“Our field team is on the ground now, ground-truthing the highest-ranked regional targets while we await results from the Hot Spring soil program, with the aim of building a sequence of drill-ready targets behind Hot Spring.”

Each target was scored on host stratigraphy, AEM response, surface geochemistry and structural setting, and was downgraded where historical exploration was considered to have adequately tested it.

The priority targets are defined by the coincidence of three independent lines of evidence.

DLY was steady at 12.0¢ with a Mkt cap of $10.92M prior to markets opening.

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