High-grade gold hits keep on coming from Dalgaranga as Spartan Resources (ASX:SPR) continues to justify its $80m equity raise earlier this year to accelerate development of the project.

The explorer is on a heater with its growing Never Never discovery, which has a current mineral resource estimate (MRE) of 952,900oz @ 5.74g/t, as well as the emerging Pepper discovery, both of which SPR is currently drilling ahead of a Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) updates.

Yet the explorer is not stopping there – it’s also announced plans to release resource estimates across the Sly Fox deposit and the Four Pillars and West Winds prospects at Dalgaranga mid-year.

SPR has been busy on the drillbit at Never Never and Pepper, which continue to prove their high-grade gold credentials.

The latest batch of assay results from surface drilling targeting the recently discovered Pepper prospect and growing Never Never deposit have intercepted thick, high grades of gold at depth.

“The parent hole to the recently reported deepest intercept at Pepper of 25.24m @ 16.66g/t gold from 657m (DGRC1431-DT-W1) rewrites history again, being deeper still and returning an exceptional intercept of 30.79m @ 12.12g/t gold (DGRC1431-DT),” SPR CEO Simon Lawson says.

“These two holes are separated by about 50m and demonstrate the continuity of thick, high-grade gold mineralisation at this exciting new and growing prospect.”

“The Never Never gold deposit also continues to throw up pleasant surprises, with a new thick and consistently high-grade intercept of 19.67m @ 19.43g/t gold from 765m (DGDH066) from within the inferred area of the existing MRE,” Lawson says.

“This near 400 gram x metre result provides strong support for our objective of converting inferred ounces to the higher confidence Indicated category by in-filling this part of the existing MRE.

“These two intercepts from Pepper and Never Never are, respectively, our fifth and sixth best-ever drilled at Dalgaranga – highlighting the potential of this mineral system to keep delivering exceptional results the more we drill.”

Spartan says it’s going to be quite busy moving forward with Dalgaranga this year ahead of planned development kicking off in Q3 this year, with:

  • Resource updates for Never Never and Sly Fox, as well as maiden standalone MRE’s for Four Pillars, West Winds and Pepper to be completed as part of the scheduled mid-year market update for Dalgaranga.
  • Underground exploration drill drive – submissions from four major underground mining contractors have been received and are being evaluated. Awarding of the exploration drill drive development contract is expected in July.
  • Surface support works in preparation for underground development activities are underway, in anticipation of receiving approvals to commence works to support development beginning later in the September quarter.