High-Grade Manganese Confirmed Across Basin & Neranghi - Is Manganese the Next Metal to be in the Limelight?
- Noel Ong
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Announcement
High-Grade Manganese Confirmed at Basin & Neranghi Projects 5 November 2025 (click here to view the announcement)
Great Dirt Resources Limited (ASX: GR8) continues to advance its 100%-owned Doherty and Basin Manganese Projects located within EL9527 near Barraba, northern New South Wales (Figure 1). Recent surface sampling across historic workings at the Basin (Copper Hill) and Neranghi areas has confirmed high-grade manganese oxide occurrences, with assays reaching up to 51.8% Mn, reinforcing the district’s potential to host significant manganese systems.
Figure 1: Location of Rock Samples (source: GR8)
The Business of the Company: Focus – Projects
Great Dirt Resources is shaping a manganese-focused exploration portfolio built on a technical framework that increasingly supports the potential for primary exhalative stratiform manganese oxide systems within its Australian projects (Figure 2).
The Doherty Project includes the historic Doherty and Junior Mines, historically supplying battery-grade manganese to Eveready and metallurgical-grade ore to BHP between 1941–1960.
The Basin Project (Copper Hill) includes several smaller historic workings where conformable manganese trends align with the dominant chert fabric, suggesting deeper primary systems.
Newly expanded WA tenements (Nullagine & Pilbara Projects) broaden exploration exposure into manganese and lithium districts.
Figure 2: Great Dirt Resources Projects (source: GR8)
Highlights – High-Grade Manganese Confirmed Across Historic Workings
Rock chip assays up to 51.8% Mn, confirming high-grade manganese oxide across Basin and Neranghi (Table 1).
Table 1: Basin and Neranghi area rock chip sample results
(Analyses by Australian Laboratory Services (ALS) Brisbane.Methods ME-ICP61 and over limits by Mn-OG62)
Massive manganese boulders and outcrops identified (up to 70 × 40 × 20 cm).
Basin mineralisation appears conformable with host fabric, supporting a potential primary exhalative stratiform model.
Research program advancing with geophysical reinterpretation, 3D structural modelling, and integrated datasets.
Multiple rock chip results above 40–50% Mn, validating geochemical signatures consistent with volcanic-exhalative manganese systems:
1) Neranghi Area Sample (High-Grade Surface Mineralisation)
Neranghi samples returned multiple high-grade manganese oxide results, including GRR283 (33.5% Mn), GRR284 (45.1% Mn), GRR285 (22.6% Mn), and GRR286 (51.8% Mn), taken from historic workings containing massive black manganese boulders and outcrops (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Neranghi samples returned multiple high-grade manganese oxide results (source: GR8)
These samples highlight the presence of robust high-grade manganese at surface within historic mine footprints (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Historic workings at Neranghi area (source: GR8)
2) Basin (Copper Hill) Area Sample (Conformable Stratiform Mineralisation)
Basin area (Copper Hill) sampling confirmed additional high-grade manganese, including GRR287 (41% Mn), GRR288 (36.8% Mn), GRR289 (50.5% Mn), and GRR290 (51.8% Mn), occurring in mineralisation that is conformable with the dominant chert fabric, supporting the emerging primary exhalative stratiform model (Figure 5).
These results reinforce geological continuity and strengthen the case for deeper primary manganese systems.
Figure 5: Copper Hill samples returned multiple high-grade manganese oxide results (source: GR8)
About the Project
The Doherty and Basin Projects cover a region historically known for producing some of Australia’s highest-grade manganese, including battery-grade ore with MnO₂ grades of 46–74%. Early mining focused on outcropping supergene oxide, leaving significant potential for untested blind mineralisation.
Key technical considerations:
Rock chip signatures show Mn/Fe ratios and trace element associations (Ba, Sr, Co, Cu, As, W) consistent with modern submarine volcanic-exhalative manganese deposits.
Historical float samples outside known mine zones indicate previously unrecognised mineralisation along strike.
Integrated geochemical, geophysical, and structural datasets now underpin a systematic approach targeting district-scale manganese systems.
Near-term Milestones to Watch
Completion and publication of detailed geophysical reinterpretation and 3D modelling.
Additional surface sampling across stratigraphy and untested structures.
Ground-truthing of newly ranked geophysical targets (Figure 6).
Ongoing drilling program scheduled to commence at the Doherty Project.
Figure 6: Ground Truthing at High-Grade Manganese Zones (source: GR8)
How Samso Understands the Investment Memo for the Company
Great Dirt is setting the foundations for a district-scale manganese exploration narrative in northern NSW. The shift from viewing the region as a source of isolated supergene pods toward a more expansive primary exhalative system model significantly increases potential upside.
The combination of high-grade rock chips, supportive geochemical fingerprints, and structured research programs positions GR8 as an early mover in redefining manganese prospectivity in this region.
As systematic exploration continues, the market will look for validation of the deeper primary model through geophysics, drilling, and continued surface sampling.
Samso Concluding Comments
The results released by Great Dirt Resources provide confirmation of multiple high-grade manganese occurrences at surface, combined with the structural context observed in the field. For the shareholders and potential investors, this may also suggest a system with more depth and scale than the historic workings would imply. For the mineral explorers, this gives a form of confidence to proceed.
What is interesting to see is that rather than treating high-grade samples as isolated anomalies, the team is focusing on how those grades relate to the broader geological architecture. The alignment of manganese mineralisation with the dominant chert fabric, together with the supporting geochemical signatures, is being postulated that the points to a potential for a primary exhalative stratiform system.
On the market side, it is worth noting that manganese continues to trade at relatively subdued levels, sitting at 29.85 CNY/mtu as of 21 November 2025 (Figure 7). The oversupply in the ore market is keeping prices flat, even though demand from steel and the emerging high-purity manganese segment is gradually increasing. The distinction between bulk ore and battery-grade supply is becoming sharper each year.
Figure 7: Manganese Market Price as of 28 November 2025 (source: Trading Economics)
For a company in Great Dirt’s position, this backdrop is important. The near-term price environment may be quiet, but the longer-term trend toward high-purity manganese products provides a context in which geological clarity and technical accuracy carry real weight. Exploration that builds a coherent model is often the most valuable foundation an early-stage company can establish.
Great Dirt is a new coverage on the Samso platform, and so is manganese. There have been a lot of positive sentiments for manganese players on the ASX, so we felt that this may be worth including in your DYOR list. What the outcome may be is still a learning curve for the Samso platform, but we are noticing movement on the station.
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