The high-grade Never Never deposit, which hosts a resource of 952,900oz @ 5.74g/t gold, underpins the rapidly growing Dalgaranga Project resource endowment of 1.67Moz @ 2.49g/t gold in front of SPR’s Dalgaranga Process Plant, mothballed in late 2021.
While its previous incarnation was forced to halt operations due to the challenge of making what was a sub-1.0g/t gold resource from the nearby Gilbey’s open pit profitable, the discovery of the high-grade Never Never Gold Deposit on the doorstep of the project’s existing 2.5Mtpa carbon-in-leach processing facility is proving to be transformational.
The rapid growth of Never Never since its discovery in late 2022 has certainly done wonders for Spartan Resources’ (ASX:SPR) share price, which has increased 350% to 45c since the end of March 2023.
Resource infill and extensional drilling carried out at Never Never in late 2023 also returned high-grade intersections such as 6.33m @ 33.72g/t gold from 561.7m, including a bonanza zone of 1m @ 114g/t gold.
Drilling at the West Winds prospect, beneath the Gilbey’s open pit, as well as the Sly Fox gold prospect have also proved there are more ounces to be found.
SPR’s deep drilling has now proved that high-grade mineralisation at Never Never maintains good widths and grades at depth, while the inferred area of the new resource boasts excellent potential for conversion to indicated in subsequent updates.
The 16.65m intersection @10.29g/t gold from 625.83m in hole DGRC1377-DT was returned from below the previously interpreted flexure zone, and very near the base of the Never Never resource estimate.
It also reinforces the incredible gold endowment of Never Never and confirms the potential for continued high-grade resource growth as drilling systematically targets further extensions down-plunge, as well as wider afield.
“DGRC1377-DT is a highly significant hole and a great way to start the year,” SPR managing director Simon Lawson said.
“Apart from being the first assayed intercept for 2024, it is also the deepest assay result to date from Never Never and importantly is located below the flexure zone which we encountered in some of our deeper drilling late last year.
“This flexure zone was the first time we had seen any structural disruption to this incredibly consistent, high-grade gold discovery – an area of apparent thinning and possible transposition of the orebody. We have now shown that beneath this zone of potential uncertainty, there is still a monster lurking.
“To start the New Year with such an incredible intercept has given our team great confidence in our ability to continue growing this deposit at depth.”
Lawson adds the intercept at the very base of the Never Never orebody “clearly” shows the high-grade mineralisation continues at depth and demonstrates the “incredible” endowment and scale of the gold system at these depths.
Five drill rigs are turning at Dalgaranga in a bid to uncover more potential.
“We are seeing more Never-Never style mineralisation in the core on our racks, and if the thickness of mineralisation and high-grade assays seen in our first hole of the year can be repeated with follow-up holes either recently drilled or currently underway, then we have another massive year ahead for Spartan in 2024,” Lawson said,
“Our Never Never MRE in December 2023 established a solid 952,900oz gold resource for this spectacular high-grade discovery.
“The last assays from 2023 pointed towards the strong potential for Never Never to continue at depth and this first hole of 2024 illustrates that the wide high-grade intercepts continue and I’m confident there is much more on the way.”
