The Unicorn

Based on my research the porphyry deposit found at Mt Unicorn is quite unique and is around one of only about 13 known of these type of deposits world wide compared to over 300 copper/molyebelum deposits.
The unicorn deposit is s climax style porphyry.
COULD the north-east corner of Victoria find itself plugged in to the multitrillion-dollar expenditure required to bring the worlds oil infrastructure up to scratch?
This question is being asked about Melbourne-based Dart Mining and its Mt Unicorn base metals prospect 20 kilometres south of Corryong in Man from Snowy River country.

Tightly held and lightly capitalised, Dart has made an interesting molybdenum discovery at Mt Unicorn. It has been outlined over about 20 hectares by a 100 metres by 100 metres grid geochemical sampling program.

An average grade of 0.04% moly, as it is known to its friends, has been indicated.

While not looking the greatest in other metal terms, the grade puts Mt Unicorn in the thick of things when compared with moly mine averages. Peak values got to 0.097% moly. By way of comparison, the Spinifex Ridge moly project in the Pilbara that Moly Metals now a $280 million company plans to develop at a cost of $1.08 billion is based on 0.05% moly, with some copper.

Significant silver, copper and bismuth values accompany the Mt Unicorn moly anomaly, which Dart is keen as mustard to drill test.

The program could be worth watching. News of the moly strike caused a bit of a flutter, moving Dart shares up to 19 cents on Friday.

But the real excitement will come when the drilling rig bites into the large circular zone that the geochemical sampling has indicated.

By way of background, moly is pricey stuff, commanding about $US33 a pound. About 80% of global production goes into stainless steel and construction steel.

The oil industry loves it because it gives improved corrosion resistance, particularly to sulphides and chlorides as the worlds oil is becoming increasingly sour (high in sulphur).

Steel strength and hardness is heightened with the stuff, particularly at high temperatures. It also delivers improved flexibility in extreme low temperatures when steel would otherwise become brittle.

There have been a couple of notable pipeline failures where the steel used has not been alloyed with moly. It has been an expensive lesson. Silver Swan finds some glitter