Daly Resources Secures $150,000 NT Grant for Broughton VTEM Survey

Northern Territory Boosts Broughton Exploration with $150K Grant

Daly Resources (ASX:DLY) has secured $150,000 in co-funding from the Northern Territory Government’s Geophysics and Drilling Collaborations Program to advance its Broughton copper-zinc project. This injection supports a regional airborne electromagnetic (VTEM) survey planned for the third quarter of 2026, covering more than 2,000 line kilometres across key target areas within exploration licences EL32992 and EL32993.

VTEM Survey to Illuminate Subsurface Conductivity and Structures

The planned VTEM survey represents Daly’s first modern airborne electromagnetic dataset over the Broughton project’s priority corridors in the northern McArthur Basin. With a 400-metre line spacing, the survey aims to map conductive stratigraphy, basin architecture, and structural corridors that may host sediment-hosted copper-zinc mineralisation. Identifying discrete conductive anomalies will be crucial to testing Daly’s exploration model, which draws on a hybrid petroleum-minerals systems approach inspired by deposits like Century in Queensland.

Exploration Model Targets Hidden Mineral Systems

Daly’s model hinges on metal-bearing basin fluids migrating through permeable stratigraphy and structural pathways, depositing sulphides where they interact with reduced sedimentary units and hydrocarbons. The Broughton area hosts potential metal sources within the Katherine River Group and organic-rich Roper Group facies, alongside evaporite units that could generate basin brines. Historical surface geochemical anomalies and base metal prospects suggest leakage from a concealed mineral system, guiding Daly’s focus on areas where surface anomalism aligns with favourable geology and structures.

Funding Accelerates Target Definition and Exploration Confidence

Executive Chairman Mike Edwards highlighted the significance of the government’s support, noting the survey will materially enhance Daly’s ability to define higher-confidence targets for follow-up exploration. The integration of VTEM data with existing geological and geochemical datasets promises a more detailed understanding of subsurface conditions, potentially unlocking the project’s district-scale discovery potential.

Daly’s Growing Northern Territory Portfolio

The Broughton project, spanning approximately 1,581 square kilometres, is part of Daly’s broader Northern Territory portfolio that includes the Huckitta and Batten projects. Huckitta is notable for fluorite and sediment-hosted copper targets, while Batten targets SEDEX-style zinc-copper mineralisation near major deposits like McArthur River. Daly’s recent $12 million IPO, backed by Sandfire Resources, has positioned the company to aggressively explore these underexplored mineral provinces.