Pepper, which was only discovered a few months ago, has a maiden resource of 430,000 ounces grading 7.66 grams per tonne.
Despite being relatively early in its life, it has generated some of the best intercepts at Dalgaranga so far, with the latest crop of infill results including the third- and tenth-best results for the project to date at 638.75 gram metres and 362.96 gram metres, respectively.
Downhole results included 20.6m at 10.02gpt gold from 513m; 13.8m at 46.32gpt from 601.6m, including 5m at 111.62gpt; and 18.5m at 19.63gpt from 569m, including 6.8m at 30.94gpt.
Encouragingly, surface drilling away from the 1.92Moz at 7.97gpt resources has highlighted three discoveries.
Initial drilling at Never Never North, which is 100m northeast of the structure that defines the 1.48Moz Never Never lode, delivered 7m at 6.09gpt from 60m, including 1m at 39.15gpt.
Drilling at the Patient Wolf magnetic/gravity target 500m north of the resource has confirmed a discovery previously defined by a single hole, with follow-up assays such as 10m at 5.05gpt from 63m, 10m at 5.77gpt from 138m, and 1.7m at 31.25gpt.
Finally, the first-ever drilling below the existing Golden Wings pit that was developed to store tailings delivered 30m at 2.7gpt from 115m, plus 18.7m at 3.65gpt from 144m, over 0.57m at 16.27gpt from 167m.
Spartan Interim executive chair Simon Lawson said the drilling was starting to bring new areas of the 6km-long Dalgaranga corridor into focus.
“Dalgaranga is well and truly moving to the next level as a belt-scale high-grade gold system with genuine multi-million ounce potential,” Lawson said.
“Given the success of our recent targeting — and our ever-increasing understanding of the structural geology that hosts this high-grade mineralisation — we believe that this high-grade greenstone belt has a lot more to reveal.”
There are now three rigs dedicated to Pepper and an RC rig testing additional targets to the north of the mine, with a diamond rig being deployed as needed.
With the Juniper decline now under development, the company said it should soon gain improved access to the Pepper, Upper Pepper, West Winds and Four Pillars deposits compared to the existing surface drilling it would not be surprising if the list of top 10 drill hits at the project was revised in short order.
An updated resource is due later this year, with a restart feasibility study planned in the first half of 2025.
Lawson recently described the project as having the potential to be one of the best underground gold mines in Australia and suggested Dalgaranga could rival Ramelius Resources’ Mt Magnet gold camp in terms of scale.
Little wonder Ramelius owns an 18.3% stake in Spartan.
