Spartan told the ASX about results including 11.55m at 36.77g per tonne from 875m — including 4m at 101.07g/t — and 13m at 25.82g/t from 624m.
Shares were trading up 14 per cent at 57¢ near the close on Monday.
Never Never is the main deposit at the Dalgaranga gold project north-west of Mt Magnet.
Spartan, which is the renamed Gascoyne Resources, is conducting a drilling campaign this year aiming to de-risk the project, which has become an exploration operation since mining ceased in November 2022.
Spartan resumed trading on the ASX last March after a four-month voluntary suspension and $50 million recapitalisation.
Spartan in December said Dalgaranga had a mineral resource of 21.15 million tonnes at 2.49g/t for 1.692 million ounces of gold.
The company said Dalgaranga comprised two deposits — Never Never, which had a resource of 5.16Mt at 5.74g/t for 952,900oz, and Gilbey’s Complex, with a resource of 15.99Mt at 1.45g/t for 739,800oz.
Spartan managing director and chief executive Simon Lawson on Monday said the drilling results highlighted that Never Never was emerging as one of the most significant standalone high-grade gold discoveries seen in Australia in recent years.
“The latest results include the deepest assay to date and the third best gram x metre intercept thus far, expanding the mineralisation to about 830m vertical depth and around one kilometre down-dip,” he said.
“Importantly, the outstanding new intercept of 11.55m at 36.77g/t sits 170m below the lower boundary of the current 952,000oz mineral resource, with further indications from recent drilling that the footprint of the mineralisation is expanding significantly at depth.
“This supports the potential to add further high-grade gold ounces at depth while also increasing confidence in our geological model.
“The deepest Never Never assay has come from DGDH052, a deep ‘parent’ drill-hole designed as a hanging-wall platform for drilling multiple secondary or ‘daughter’ drill-holes into the growing Never Never system.
“Our primary focus with the daughter drill-holes is to target systematic in-fill of the inferred portion of the recently updated 952,900oz Never Never gold deposit MRE aiming for strong conversion to the higher-confidence indicated resource classification.
“Never Never is quickly becoming a major high-grade gold discovery with gold at grades that are very rarely seen, with wide geometry and steep attitude.”
