Spartan Resources has discovered a new high-grade gold lode immediately south of the Never Never gold deposit within its wholly owned Dalgaranga gold project in Western Australia.
The new lode, the Pepper gold prospect, sits about 90m south of the previous southern intercept at Never Never.
The Pepper discovery intercept, 17.52m at 15.86 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold including 9.22m at 27.89g/t of gold, comprises typical Never Never-style mineralisation with similar grades and mineralogical characteristics.
“The discovery of the new high-grade Pepper gold prospect, located directly between Never Never and Four Pillars, is yet another game-changer for the Dalgaranga gold project,” Spartan Resources managing director and chief executive officer Simon Lawson said.
“The core from the discovery hole DGRC1432-DT shows the same thick, heavily altered volcaniclastic host-rock, orientation and mineralisation style as Never Never and the gold grades are consistent across the entire intercept and of an impressive tenor, to this point only seen elsewhere at Never Never.
“Importantly, the Pepper discovery sits along-strike and in the same volcaniclastic sequence as Never Never but appears to be in a separate steeply north-west plunging fold shoot of its own.”
Spartan said all current conceptual underground development designs for future underground drilling and potential extraction of high-grade gold mineralisation at Never Never pass by the Pepper discovery.
The company has drilled several follow-up holes up-dip from DGRC1432-DT, which have intersected the same style of Never Never mineralisation.
“The potential to add further high-grade ounces in close proximity to planned future infrastructure through discoveries like this is central to our strategy and investment proposition – and demonstrates clearly why we think there is so much more upside in what is turning out to be a truly remarkable gold system at Dalgaranga,” Lawson said.
The Pepper discovery follows Spartan hitting visible gold that runs over 1km deep at Never Never last week.
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