Fenton South Diamond Drilling (GDC1700040) Drilling & Geophysics Collaboration Report Round 17 - Resourcing the Territory EL 32886

Abstract

Mangusta Minerals Pty Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of DeSoto Resources Limited, holds and operates the Fenton South Gold Project Exploration Licence EL 32886, approximately 150 km south of Darwin, Northern Territory. The Fenton South Gold Project is an under-cover Paleoproterozoic belt of complex magnetic character. It extends for over 20km long by 4km wide on the western edge of the Pine Creek inlier and is covered by 100-200m of Cambrian limestones of the Daly Basin. Geologically, it is interpreted as representing a doubly plunging anticlinorium with the eastern limb adjacent to an interpreted regional scale shear zone, the Fenton (or Blue Ant) Shear Zone. This is parallel to and of similar dimensions to the highly mineralised Pine Creek Shear Zone. The region was historically targeted by Homestake Mining Company looking for BIF-hosted deposits analogous to the 40Moz 'Lead Deposit' in South Dakota USA. Equally, the potential for repeats of Pine Creek 'Cosmo-Howley style' orogenic gold in anticlinal positions is considered as very likely. Fenton South was identified as a priority high response target from the 2023 round 16 NTGS co-funded SkyTEM survey. The AEM response shows an enclosed, elongated signature and consists of 5 moderate to strong late time conductivity anomalies with semi-coincident magnetic responses. It is interpreted as an antiformal structure, upwards of 2.5km long, that is untested by drilling. The target area is located 6km south of the main area of the Fenton Gold project ('Fenton Central') where drilling by Homestake and DeSoto Resources (as Mangusta Minerals) intersected significant gold mineralisation in highly sheared pyrrhotite-bearing metasediments and intrusives. Results include 72m @ 0.43g/t Au from 528m including 5m @ 1.02g/t Au from 563m in FMD0004, and 17m @ 0.62g/t Au from 578m including 5m @ 1.09g/t Au in FMD0003, confirming the potential for a large gold mineral system.