An independent ERM review has identified 22 prospective targets at Daly Resources’ Batten Project, including 11 ranked Priority 1. Hot Spring remains the lead drilling target, while a newly interpreted 12-kilometre Berjaya Corridor has emerged as the project’s most intriguing regional opportunity.
- 22 targets identified across the 1,124 km² Batten Project
- 11 targets ranked Priority 1, with nine clustered in the southern project area
- Berjaya Corridor contains the review’s highest-ranked target, Target 9
- Hot Spring soil results are expected in the coming weeks
- Field reconnaissance is underway and drilling approvals are in place at Hot Spring
ERM identifies 11 Priority 1 Batten targets
Daly Resources Limited (ASX:DLY) has substantially widened the exploration map at its Batten zinc project, with an independent ERM review identifying 22 prospective targets and ranking 11 as Priority 1. The review covered the company’s 1,124 km² Northern Territory tenure and drew together historical electromagnetic surveys, geochemistry, geological mapping, structural interpretations and drilling records.
The significance is not a new mineralised intercept. No drilling, assays or discovery are reported in the announcement. Rather, ERM’s work provides a ranked pipeline of targets considered prospective for McArthur River-style zinc-lead-silver mineralisation, with the strongest concentration in the southern part of Batten. Nine of the 11 Priority 1 targets sit between Hot Spring and the newly defined Berjaya Corridor.
Berjaya Corridor follows interpreted HYC-Teena structure
The standout addition is the approximately 12-kilometre Berjaya Corridor, a belt of airborne electromagnetic conductors extending along Daly’s interpreted north-west continuation of the Bald Hills Fault. That structure is associated with the McArthur River HYC and Teena deposits, although Daly’s interpretation of its continuation beneath Berjaya remains untested.
The corridor includes Targets 15, 9, 6 and 5, all ranked Priority 1. Target 9 is the strongest conductor and the highest-scoring target in ERM’s review. A historical diamond hole drilled south of the conductor terminated in Hot Springs Member without reaching the prospective Barney Creek Formation, leading ERM to interpret the target horizon as deeper and more steeply dipping than previously modelled. That interpretation could point to a sub-basin geometry, but it still requires field, geophysical and ultimately drill testing.
Hot Spring remains the first drilling test
Hot Spring is less speculative in terms of near-term execution, rather than geological outcome. Daly has completed soil sampling and has environmental approval for drilling, leaving the company awaiting results and seeking a suitable rig before the wet season. The target comprises Targets 3 and 19, where conductive responses coincide with interpreted prospective stratigraphy and favourable fault settings.
The current work builds on Daly’s Hot Spring soil survey, which began in September to refine potential drill locations. Results are expected in the coming weeks. The company’s field team is also reconnaissance-testing the regional targets, with the stated aim of ranking them for follow-up soil geochemistry, geophysics and drilling.
Historical data create both opportunity and risk
ERM’s targeting model is based on the coincidence of three evidence streams: conductors interpreted from historical AEM data, pathfinder elements including arsenic, antimony, cadmium and thallium, and geological settings that could host the Barney Creek Formation. Several targets have never been drilled, while others were only partially tested.
That evidence is exploratory, not confirmatory. ERM relied on historical data supplied by Daly and did not independently validate the underlying datasets. Older AEM surveys are comparatively noisy, and conductivity can reflect carbonaceous or sulphidic shale, cover or other non-mineralised geology rather than zinc-lead mineralisation. The proposed Bald Hills Fault offset and the Berjaya target geometry therefore remain hypotheses that drilling must resolve.
Bottom Line?
The next value test is no longer target generation but conversion: Hot Spring soil results, rig access and the first drill holes will determine whether the expanded pipeline contains mineralisation or mainly better geological interpretation.
Questions in the middle?
- Will Hot Spring soil results identify anomalies strong enough to support maiden drilling before the wet season?
- Can Daly secure a rig and convert its existing environmental approval into drilling at Hot Spring?
- Does drilling or follow-up geophysics confirm the interpreted Bald Hills Fault continuation beneath the Berjaya Corridor?