Spartan Resources Limited (“Spartan” or “Company”) (ASX: SPR) is pleased to report updated drilling and assay information from recent drilling at its 100%-owned Dalgaranga Gold Project (“DGP”) in the Murchison region of Western Australia.
Highlights:
Never Never Gold Deposit – new high-grade gold intercept near base of recent high-grade Mineral Resource Estimate:
16.65m @ 10.29g/t gold from 625.83m down-hole, including:3.00m @ 52.03g/t – DGRC1377-DTThis intercept is the deepest assay to date from the Never Never Gold Deposit and is located near the base of the recently announced Mineral Resource Estimate “MRE” of:5.16Mt @ 5.74g/t gold for 952,900oz (December 2023 MRE)The Spartan geology team considers this mineralised intercept to be an exceptional result, given its location beneath the previously interpreted flexure zone, and very near the base of the recently released Never Never MRE – demonstrating that high-grade gold mineralisation maintains good widths and grades at depth and that the Inferred area of the new resource maintains excellent potential for conversion to Indicated in subsequent updates. (See Figure 2 for schematic detail of the “flexure” zone)The significant intercept from DGRC1377-DT reinforces the incredible gold endowment of the Never Never Deposit and confirms the potential for continued high-grade resource growth as drilling systematically targets further extensions down-plunge, as well as wider afield.
Spartan Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Simon Lawson, said: “DGRC1377-DT is a highly significant hole and a great way to start the year! 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 ore body. 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.
“A +10g/t intercept from over 625m down-hole at the very base of a ~1 million ounce orebody clearly shows that high-grade mineralisation continues at depth. This hit shows the incredible endowment and scale of the gold system at these depths and reinforces the fact that Never Never is one of the best gold discoveries seen in Western Australia in many years.
“The five rigs we now have on-site are continuously drilling more and more potential every hour of every day. 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!
“Our Never Never MRE in December 2023 established a solid 952,900 ounce 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!
“Against the backdrop of an extremely buoyant gold market, Spartan could not be better positioned moving into the New Year. The Company has a strong balance sheet, a large, high-grade resource inventory sitting right next to an existing plant on granted Mining Leases and multiple rigs delivering fantastic results. Spartan is poised for another year of exceptional growth.”
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