Spartan (ASX:SPR) sow high-grade gold at Dalgaranga

Spartan Resources has returned more thick stretches of high-grade gold from a trio of prospects ahead of an imminent resource upgrade at its fully owned Dalgaranga Gold Project in the Murchison region of Western Australia.

A headliner 18.38m @ 6.1g/t gold came in from the Never Never Deposit, where a high-grade batch included the deepest deposit assay to date as Spartan round out a breakout year at its flagship project.

Beginning the year with a humble 1.4c share price, Spartan is now trading at 46c after continued successes at a Dalgaranga Project boasting a fully developed gold mining operation and proven opportunity for discovery.

Spartan Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Simon Lawson said it had truly been a transformational year, a credit to a team which remained focused at all times on the things it could control, applying smart geology and effective drilling to deliver high-grade growth and keep the operations ready to go.

“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 & Australian gold prices. We offer unique optionality and exposure to gold in challenging economic times,” Mr Lawson said.

“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 90koz @ 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.”

Mr Lawson added that a wider focus on delivering more higher-grade tonnage ore sources has seen the company apply lessons from Never Never to the former Gilbey’s open-pit environment, highlighted by success at the Four Pillars and West Winds targets.

“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,” he said.

“Work is well advanced on the resource upgrade for both Never Never and the Gilbey’s Mine Complex, with most of the results from today’s release to be included in the MRE upgrade, which is on track to be finalised and delivered to market imminently. Our positive news-flow will continue into the New Year with mine design, scheduling and reserve scenarios underway.

Spartan now plot another, expansive drill campaign set to kick off in January, looking to build up confidence and high-grade ounces on a well-established golden foundation in the face of now-idle infrastructure looking ready to go again on high-grade oprations.

New highlights:

Never Never Gold Deposit

• 18.38m @ 6.10g/t gold from 453.0m down-hole, including:
  – 8.65m @ 10.43g/t – DGRC1361-DT (above newly interpreted flexure zone)
• 20.9m @ 4.14g/t gold from 516.0m down-hole, including:
  – 2.38m @ 20.20g/t – DGRC1281-DT (above flexure zone)
• 12.19m @ 4.16g/t gold from 516.6m down-hole, including:
  – 2.00m @ 15.96g/t – DGRC1347-DT (deepest Never Never assay to date)
• 21.00m @ 1.93g/t gold from 517.0m down-hole, including:
  – 8.56m @ 2.65g/t – DGRC1360-DT (within flexure zone)

Four Pillars Gold Prospect

• 11.0m @ 2.44g/t gold from 162.0m down-hole – DGRC1334
• 3.0m @ 5.53g/t gold from 108.0m down-hole – DGRC1339
• 6.0m @ 3.60g/t gold from 372.0m down-hole – DGRC1280-DT
• 2.32m @ 5.73g/t gold from 269.9m down-hole – DGRC1278-DT

West Winds Gold Prospect

• 61.0m @ 2.13g/t gold from 85.0m down-hole, including:
  – 22.0m @ 4.69g/t – DGRC1352
• 66.0m @ 1.32g/t gold from 194.0m down-hole, including:
  – 8.0m @ 3.29g/t – DGRC1354
• 18.0m @ 1.94g/t gold from 12.0m down-hole, including:
  – 3.0m @ 7.92g/t – DGRC1338

Cross section of the Never Never deposit