Maritana Minerals has put its regional hub-and-spoke strategy into overdrive, striking a shrewd deal for fellow ASX-listed gold explorer Dundas Minerals to take an 85 per cent stake in its Baden-Powell/Windanya gold project near Kalgoorlie in WA. Maritana will retain a 15 per centstake in the asset, free-carried to a decision to mine, in addition to priority rights over its future ore processing.
The project's primary gold deposits, Capricorn and Baden-Powell, pack a combined inferred resource of 1.25 million tonnes at 1.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 48,500 ounces. Both sit on granted mining leases.
Under the terms of the deal, Dundas will issue A$1 million in shares to Maritana, giving the company a 7.4 per cent shareholding in Dundas. The transaction follows an earlier $500,000 option fee, comprising $250,000 cash and $250,000 in shares, alongside a further $500,000 exploration spending commitment already met by Dundas.
Shareholders approved the share issue in October, allowing Dundas to exercise its option in the past week. Completion is expected ten business days after exercise, unless otherwise agreed. The new shares will be priced at the preceding 20-day volume-weighted average and escrowed for six months, while Dundas will seek Ministerial consent for the lease transfers.
Going forward, Dundas has agreed to fund all exploration and maintain the tenements, keeping its partner’s stake free-carried until a decision to mine is made, typically following completion of a feasibility study. Dundas will manage the joint venture, with both parties required to fund their respective shares or face dilution and potential conversion to a capped royalty.
Crucially, Maritana retains priority rights to process ore from the project at its planned Black Swan gold hub, 40km away. Dundas can go elsewhere only if Maritana declines to match a cheaper combined processing and transport offer. No processing agreement or mining study exists yet.
Beyond the corporate mechanics, Dundas appears to have picked up a compelling exploration package spanning an interpreted 3km north-south gold corridor, stretching from its own Rockland discovery in the south through the Aquarius and Capricorn depositsto Gemini, with the Baden-Powell deposit further north beside the Goldfields Highway.
Previous drilling at Aquarius delivered a cracking 3m at 10.2g/t gold from 109m, including 1m at a stellar 29.6g/t. Historical Gemini drilling struck 2m at 26.68g/t, but incomplete records rule out its use in resource estimation.
Capricorn, meanwhile, brings 25,500 ounces to the party, extending to a depth of 135m, while Baden-Powell chips in another 23,000 ounces, mostly within 100m of surface. Much of the corridor remains untested below 100m, while a 500m-plus drilling gap between Capricorn and Rockland leaves plenty of room for further discoveries.
Dundas Minerals managing director Jonathan Downes said: “Exercising this option brings two shallow, largely unmined gold resources at Capricorn and Baden-Powell together with our Rockland discovery and the Gemini prospect, so the whole corridor can be explored and advanced as one project.”
Dundas says resource definition drilling will shortly resume at its wholly owned Rockland discovery, where a one-kilometre mineralised zone remains open down dip. New assays from Baden-Powell and remaining results from Capricorn are due through the December quarter, feeding continued work towards updated mineral resource estimates.
Elsewhere, Maritana is busy breathing new life into its flagship processing facility, transforming the former Black Swan nickel concentrator into a 2.5-million-tonne-per-annum gold processing powerhouse. The operation will draw on a hefty 2.15-million-ounce resource spread across its three production centres at Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie and Black Swan, with first gold targeted for the second half of 2027.
Its initial five-year mine plan aims to recover 546,000 ounces from a mine-planning inventory of roughly 600,000 ounces drawn from its broader resource base, representing less than a third of that base and leaving considerable scope to keep the gold pouring well beyond the initial schedule.
This deal with Dundas effectively adds another potential spoke to Maritana’s wheel, while leaving the exploration spending firmly in someone else’s hands.
For Maritana, it’s a clever piece of corporate deal-making, delivering equity upside, a free ride through to a mining decision and, potentially, another source of ore for the 2.5-million-tonne-per-annum beast taking shape at Black Swan.
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