Spartan Resources Limited (“Spartan” or “Company”) (ASX: SPR) is pleased to report updated drilling and assay information from recent drilling completed towards the end of 2023 and into 2024 at its 100%- owned Dalgaranga Gold Project (“DGP”) in the Murchison region of Western Australia.
Highlights:
Never Never Gold Deposit:
- 20.5m of “typical” Never-Never-style mineralisation, with indicative heavy silicification and biotite-chlorite alteration, logged from 871.5m down-hole in DGDH052 (pending assays), including small specs of visible gold logged at 878.7m down-hole.
- The intercept is located down-plunge and more than 170m below the current 952koz MRE extent, highlighting the exceptional growth potential of the Never Never deposit at depth.
- Additional significant new Never Never assay results include:
- 25.17m @ 6.59g/t gold from 448.3m down-hole, including:
- 7.5m @ 13.52g/t – DGDH050 (de-risks key area of high-metal content in MRE)
- 170.0m @ 4.13g/t gold from surface – DGRC1396 (open-pit to underground metallurgical test-work drill-hole, drilled at 75º dip down-plunge through the Never Never orebody, not true width).
- 25.17m @ 6.59g/t gold from 448.3m down-hole, including:
Four Pillars Gold Prospect – new high-grade gold intercept:
- 15.0m @ 6.06g/t gold from 358.0m down-hole, including:
- 3.00m @ 23.65g/t – DGDH046 (outside MRE, deepest assay at Four Pillars to date)
Sly Fox Gold Deposit – new high-grade gold intercept:
- 23.83m @ 2.44g/t gold from 379.0m down-hole, including:
- 5.00m @ 5.23g/t – DGRC1382 (towards base of existing Inferred MRE)
Note: Visual estimates of mineral abundance should never be considered a proxy or substitute for laboratory analyses where concentrations or grades are the factor of principal economic interest. Visual estimates also potentially provide no information regarding impurities or deleterious physical properties relevant to valuations. Core processing is currently underway, with assay results expected in early March.
Management Comment
Spartan Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Simon Lawson, said: “At the start of the year, we sat down as a geology team at Dalgaranga to reflect on what had been an absolutely massive 2023 and to discuss the future! What targets did we want to drill, what did the Company need to successfully execute the next stage of its growth strategy, and where did Spartan want to be in 12 months?
“We discussed how establishing almost a million high-grade gold ounces at Never Never while doubling the ounces and tripling the resource grade for the overall project might be a hard act to follow!
“As a group we agreed that we have just scratched the surface of the potential that could exist at Dalgaranga. Given our growing understanding of the mineralising systems and the larger potential we were beginning to see at depth at several key deposits as 2023 drew to a close, for 2024 we are following those leads and keeping our strategy simple.
“Our strategy for 2024 is simple: Drill and de-risk.
“Drilling at the key high-grade Never Never Gold Deposit is targeting more rapid high-grade resource growth by mid-2024, and with our first deep hole already hitting more than 20m of typical highly silicified and altered Never-Never-style mineralisation at 878m down-hole, including specs of visible gold, I’d say we’re already well on the way towards achieving that objective!
“We are also drilling to de-risk Never Never by targeting conversion of more than 85% of the current MRE ounces to Indicated classification. This drilling is designed to provide increased grade, volume and metal content confidence to the Spartan engineering team.
“Our drilling and de-risking includes ongoing metallurgical test-work from drill-holes designed and drilled specifically for this purpose. This drilling is yielding crucial information for our ongoing Ore Reserve and Feasibility Study work.
“A recent example is metallurgical drill-hole DGRC1396, drilled inside the Never Never Gold Deposit MRE and potential open pit, which returned a spectacular gold assay of 170m @ 4.13g/t from surface to the footwall contact. This result, while not useful in a resource estimation sense due to its sub-vertical drill angle, gives a useful insight into the down-plunge gold grade variability through any number of open-pit to underground design scenarios for the Never Never Gold Deposit.
“More broadly, we are drilling and de-risking at an operational scale by targeting relatively shallow existing and historic high-grade gold prospects as near-term potential ore feed sources. The Four Pillars and West Winds Gold Prospects continue to yield wide, higher grade drill intercept grades, increasing geological confidence and de-risking open pit scenarios for the former Gilbey’s Mine Complex.
“We have also re-commenced drilling in earnest at the Sly Fox Gold Deposit which, prior to the discovery of the high-grade Never Never Gold Deposit, was the highest-grade gold prospect at Dalgaranga. Sitting less than 2km from the process plant and on granted Mining Leases, we drilled a couple of test holes into Sly Fox late in 2023.
“One of those holes, DGRC1382-DT, which was designed to test the veracity of previous geological interpretations, recently returned 23.83m @ 2.44g/t gold, including 5m @ 5.23g/t from near the very base of the declared Mineral Resource. This latest assay result, along with several recently completed 2024 drill-holes currently awaiting assays, have tested the previous geological interpretation, intersecting wide mineralised intervals well outside any previous resource interpretation and validating Sly Fox as a legitimate high-grade priority target for 2024.
“Spartan has a full set of priority drill targets for 2024. Our strategy is to drill and de-risk our assets through increased geological confidence and orebody knowledge. As we continue this process, we not only grow the potential value of our existing high-grade gold assets in front of our 100%-owned process plant and infrastructure, we also increase confidence in and de-risk the Spartan investment proposition for all our shareholders.”
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