Never Never is already one of the most exciting, emerging gold deposits in Australia with resources growing rapidly since its discovery in early 2022 to a pretty substantial 3.83Mt @ 5.85g/t gold, or 721,000oz of contained gold.

That the deposit is just a stone’s throw away from Spartan Resources’ (ASX:SPR) existing 2.5Mtpa carbon-in-leach processing facility and the main open pit at Dalgaranga serves to underscore just how valuable it is.

And there’s every indication this is just the beginning.

Further drilling at the deposit has already delivered standout hits such as 0.28m at 1,093g/t gold within a broader 11.1m at 12.1g/t gold zone from a down-hole depth of 444.9m and 7.26m at 6.64g/t gold from 441.46m.

Drilling also returned a result of 0.82m at 33.27g/t gold from 250.34m  the separate Ink lode, extending the potential strike of high-grade mineralisation by 135m.

SPR has received more high-grade gold assays from Never Never, including:

  • 18.38m at 6.1g/t gold from 453m, including 8.65m at 10.43g/t gold above a newly interpreted flexure zone;
  • 20.9m at 4.14g/t gold from 516m, including 2.38m at 20.2g/t gold above the flexure zone; and
  • 12.19m at 4.16g/t gold from 516.6m, including 2m at 15.96g/t gold – the deepest Never Never assay to date.

Meanwhile, initial drilling at the Four Pillars and West Winds prospects on the western side of the open pit.

At Four Pillars, drilling returned new intersections of 11m at 2.44g/t gold from 162m and 3m at 5.53g/t gold from 108m, while West Winds returned much thicker hits of 61m at 2.13g/t gold from 85m and 66m at 1.32g/t gold from 194m.

“2023 has been a truly transformational year for our shareholders and our company,” SPR managing director Simon Lawson said.

“Our team has remained focussed at all times on the things we can control – applying smart geology, undertaking effective drilling and delivering high-grade resource growth, as well as keeping our established infrastructure in place and in a high state of readiness.

“This means we are now very well positioned as a low-risk, well-capitalised, high-grade gold investment with existing production infrastructure in times of record US and Australian gold prices. We offer unique optionality and exposure to gold in challenging economic times.

“The intense drill focus on the high-grade Never Never discovery has delivered more than 720,000oz of high-grade gold – mineralised from surface and including roughly 90,000koz @ 2.2g/t in open pit resources as well as 630koz above 7.5g/t gold in the underground environment – in a very short space of time.

“Our wider focus on delivering further higher-grade tonnage ore sources has seen us apply what we have learned at Never Never to the former Gilbey’s open-pit environment, highlighting specifically the Four Pillars and West Winds targets on the western side of the pit.

“These targets are just starting to reveal their true identity as standout higher-grade, structurally-associated gold shoots within the wider Gilbey’s stratigraphic sequence, with the potential to add significant tonnages at a very reasonable grade to any future mine plan.”

Lawson added that most of the latest assays will be included in the upcoming resource upgrade for both the Never Never deposit and the Gilbey’s Mine Complex.

SPR expects to start a new and expansive drill campaign in January 2024 to build on the significant resource foundation already established at the project.

This will seek to deliver on the company’s strategy of growing high confidence, high-grade gold near its established infrastructure.