Spartan confirms consistent thick mineralisation over 120m along-strike and 150m down-plunge at Pepper gold discovery
Assays show best intercept to date of 25.24m @ 16.66g/t gold
Drilling to continue ahead of a scheduled and likely significant resource update
Special Report: Targeted extensions of the recently discovered Pepper prospect at Spartan Resources’ Dalgaranga gold project have struck the deepest intercept to date, confirming thick gold mineralisation at the fast-growing and high-grade discovery.
WA gold darling Spartan Resources (ASX:SPR) continues to drill into exceptional and thick high-grade gold at its new Pepper discovery at the Dalgaranga project in WA’s Murchison region.
SPR’s resurgence started with the expanding high grade Never Never discovery, which has a current mineral resource estimate (MRE) of 952,900oz @ 5.74g/t. Now there’s the ‘Never Never lookalike’ Pepper, which SPR is drilling ahead of a resource update.
Pepper’s deep gold
Deepest intercept to date confirms consistent thick mineralisation over 120m along-strike and 150m down-plunge at the fast-growing high-grade discovery.
The new intercept significantly expands known extents of the high-grade discovery of 25.24m @ 16.66g/t gold (uncut) from 616.41m down hole.
This included 5.21m @ 18.74g/t, 4.65m @ 52.46g/t and 5.44m @ 12.39g/t gold in three separate high grade sub-intervals within the overall high-grade drill intercept.
SPR says the intercept confirms that high-grade gold mineralisation extends >115m down-plunge from DGDH070, which returned 14.73m @ 11.42g/t gold as well as northward >85m beyond the previous deepest Pepper intercept of 11.28m @ 5.94g/t gold from hole DGDH069.
Drill hole DGRC1431-DT-W1 illustrating individual sample interval gold assay grades. Pic supplied: (SPR)
“This latest drill intercept in DGRC1431-DT-W1 of 25.24m @ 16.66g/t gold is the best and also the deepest Pepper drill intercept to date and, at 420.5 gram x metres, is the fourth best intercept ever recorded at the Dalgaranga Gold Project, Never Never included,” SPR CEO Simon Lawson says.
“The other two results reported today are certainly lower grade, however the intercept of 20.38m @ 0.92g/t gold in DGDH067 comes from within the shear zone that defines the northern margin of Never Never, and the other intercept of 12.55m @ 1g/t gold in DGDH062 defines the lower grade zone that sits between Never Never and the new Pepper gold prospect.
“These holes provide useful information for constraining the ‘edges’ of the mineralisation ahead of the upcoming mid-year resource updates.”
Gold intercepts at the Dalgaranga project.. Pic supplied: (SPR)
“Just weeks after its discovery in May this year, Pepper is already emerging as a significant new high-grade ore system immediately adjacent to our flagship deposit, the 0.95Moz Never Never gold deposit, discovered in 2022,” SPR CEO SImon Lawson says.
“Owning high-grade resources close to relatively new processing infrastructure is a great formula and the foundation behind many highly successful and resilient producers, past and present.”
Dalgaranga strategy
“What differentiates our opportunity – the Spartan story – is that we are generating excitement, momentum and value by drilling and actively growing our high-grade gold resources through continuous discovery, right in front of our existing infrastructure.
“While we continue to increase the value of our assets and our company through the drill bit, the next key phase in our strategy will get underway shortly with the commencement of our underground exploration drill drive.”
This, Lawson says, will provide the key drill platforms from which SPR will continue to drive resource growth, generate reserves and grade control the key Never Never Gold deposit, as well as explore for more high-grade discoveries.
“The added benefit of the drill drive is that it can rapidly become the natural backbone, a critical piece of capital development, for any future underground mining scenarios – providing access to the Never Never, Pepper and West Winds target zones,” Lawson says.
“Considering what we have achieved with surface drilling over the past two years, the development of the exploration drill drive has the potential to take the Spartan story to the next level as we get up close and personal with our recent high-grade discoveries and continue to focus on delivering tangible outcomes for our shareholders.”
Next steps
Drilling continues towards a maiden mineral resource estimate for the high-grade Pepper gold discovery, as part of a scheduled mid-year resource update for the overall Dalgaranga gold project.
This article was developed in collaboration with Spartan Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
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