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Denny Dalton was acquired by Thomas Denny, John Dalton and Scott Paulson in 1893 for the purpose of mining gold in the immediate vicinity. A gold plant was commissioned the same year but failed to produce gold during the first test (April 1895). Thomas Denny died in July 1895 but his sons continued to run the project up to 1908. The mining of the tailings commenced in1926 and continued until after 1945. Anglo American Corporation and General Mining later optioned the area and drilled exploratory holes over an area of 15 km by 5 km in search for payable gold deposits.
In 1974, the Atomic Energy Co-corporation commissioned Southern Sphere to investigate the uranium potential of this area. Southern Sphere drilled more than 241 drill holes on the area between 1976 and 1978 and noted that "...the value distribution curves for gold and uraniumare parallel, implying similar distribution parameters and similar origin."
Denny Dalton is situated at the southern most end of a major Precambrian basin in which deep erosion has stripped away the cover rocks and exposed the units of the Pongola Super Group.This Pongola basin is compatible in size with the Witwatersrand but about 300 million years older. The Pongola rocks are estimated to be 3.1-2.9 billion years compared with the Witwatersrand which spans 2.75 - 2.5 billion years. Mineralisation at Denny Dalton occurs in uraniferous and auriferous, pyritic conglomerate beds at the base of the Mozaan Group. These conglomeritic beds outcrop over a strike area of some approximately 4km. The Mozaan Contact Reef ("MCR") is the principal economic horizon and lies unconformably on the Insuzi Lava Formation. Southern Sphere noted that some additional reefs stratigraphically above the MCR, have shown to have economic potential both for gold and uranium.
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