Aspiring gold developer, Middle Island Resources’ 100% subsidiary, Sandstone Operations Pty Ltd (SOPL), has executed a deed, whereby SOPL has the option to acquire a 100% interest in the Dandaraga gold project, comprising granted Exploration Licence E57/1028, from SLS Exploration.

The Dandaraga gold project covers an area of 605 ha and lies 16 km southeast of the company’s existing Sandstone gold project. Importantly, the Dandaraga project lies only 4 km south of the historic (but well-preserved) haul road linking the Lord Henry and Lord Nelson deposits with Middle Island’s 600,000 t/y Sandstone gold processing plant.

• The Dandaraga geology comprises a succession of banded iron formations (BIFs), ultramafics, gabbros and, importantly, dolerites
• The project incorporates a series of historic gold workings that remain untested or poorly tested by modern gold exploration
• The more significant Agnes workings are developed on a zone of stockwork quartz veining within a dolerite unit, adjacent to which free gold has been identified in a highly brecciated, gossanous and quartz-veined BIF
• The Dandaraga project is largely well-exposed, facilitating rapid, conventional and cost-effective exploration for additional targets
• The Dandaraga acquisition presents both an immediate and attractive open pit exploration target at the Agnes gold prospect, and consolidates considerable exploration acreage into Middle Island’s well-endowed Sandstone gold tenure
• The transaction is entirely consistent with Middle Island’s strategy to extend and enhance the proposed production schedule for its 100%-owned Sandstone gold processing plant
• It will be the second such expansion, following the company’s June signing of an option to acquire the Wirraminna gold project, situated immediately adjacent to the Sandstone project and within 1 km of the processing plant.