Dalaroo soil survey stretches WA copper-nickel target

Dalaroo Metals has expanded the footprint of its Watheroo copper-nickel-platinum group elements prospect in WA’s mid-north wheatbelt, with first-stage soil sampling extending a key copper anomaly by two square kilometres.

The 106-sample program returned solid peak values of 284 parts per million (ppm) copper and 176ppm nickel, in addition to encouraging hits of up to 10 parts per billion for platinum, palladium and gold.

The fresh results extend the copper-in-soil geochemical response south of a historical sampling area, with the area enclosed by the 40ppm copper contour now covering two square kilometres.

Dalaroo says the multi-element soil results shows a strong spatial association with both mapped mafic-ultramafic rocks and a significant underlying magnetic feature, strengthening its interpretation of a large-scale intrusive system. The company is pursuing a Julimar-style magmatic sulphide exploration model at Watheroo, which is centred on an impressive 7-km by 3km magnetic anomaly.

The project sits on the western margin of the Yilgarn Craton, a geological setting that was thrust into the spotlight following Chalice Mining’s world-class Gonneville nickel-copper-PGE discovery at its Julimar project 90km to the south. That discovery sparked a land rush along the craton margin, a region previously overlooked due to significant surface cover.

Dalaroo’s work at Watheroo is a textbook case of building a geological story from the ground up. The company has layered historical data with its own more recent magnetic surveys and is now overlaying that with surface geochemistry. The latest results look to have firmed up the eastern contact of the buried mafic-ultramafic intrusion as a priority hunting ground for potential sulphide accumulation.

Dalaroo Metals chief executive officer John Morgan said: “Stage 1 has extended the Watheroo copper and nickel soil response south of the historical sampling area. Peak results of 284 ppm copper and 176 ppm nickel are encouraging and, together with the broader multi-element response, provide a clear focus for follow-up work.”

Whilst Watheroo is shaping up as a key local asset, Dalaroo is also advancing a diverse portfolio of projects across multiple jurisdictions. In Côte d’Ivoire, the company has cleared the final hurdles for a major maiden drilling campaign at its Bondoukou Gold Ridge project. Following a recent $2.5 million capital raise, Dalaroo has expanded its planned reverse circulation drilling program to 12,000m from 10,000m to systematically test three priority gold targets along a 7km-long anomalous trend with drilling set to kick off any day.

Further afield in southern Greenland, Dalaroo recently wrapped up the largest-ever field program at its Blue Lagoon rare earths project. The company says the work has already upgraded the project from an early-stage concept into a well-defined regional rare earths system with four new prospects identified.