Understanding the grades and intercepts mentioned requires a bit of decoding for investors new to the mining space. Gold grades, expressed in grams per tonne (g/t), indicate the concentration of gold within a tonne of rock. Higher-grade deposits are typically more profitable, as they yield more gold per tonne of ore extracted. The intercept length, meanwhile, gives an idea of the deposit’s size and the continuity of mineralisation, essential factors in assessing a mine’s potential lifespan and profitability.
So, Spartan Resources drill hole named “DGDH052” intercepted a mineralised zone over a length of 11.55 meters, starting at a depth of 875 meters, at an average gold concentration of a remarkable 36.77 grams per tonne (g/t). The notation following this stating “incl. 4.0m @ 101.07g/t” highlights an even richer subsection within this intercept, where a 4-meter stretch contains gold at an extraordinary concentration of 101.07 g/t.
Simon Lawson, Spartan’s Managing Director and CEO, encapsulated the significance of these findings, stating,“Never Never continues to emerge as one of the most significant standalone high-grade gold discoveries seen in Australia in recent years. The latest results include the deepest assay to date and the third best gram x metre intercept thus far, expanding the mineralisation to about 830m vertical depth and around 1km down-dip.
“Importantly, the outstanding new intercept of 11.55m at 36.77g/t sits 170m below the lower boundary of the current 952koz Mineral Resource, with further indications from recent drilling that the footprint of the mineralisation is expanding significantly at depth. This supports the potential to add further high-grade gold ounces at depth while also increasing confidence in our geological model.
“These latest assays also support our ongoing resource-to-reserve conversion efforts, as well as providing further momentum to our growth strategy at the Dalgaranga Gold Project.”
“The deepest Never Never assay has come from DGDH052, a deep ‘parent’ drill-hole designed as a hanging-wall platform for drilling multiple secondary or ‘daughter’ drill-holes into the growing Never Never system. Our primary focus with the daughter drill-holes is to target systematic in-fill of the Inferred portion of the recently updated 952,900oz Never Never Gold Deposit MRE aiming for strong conversion to the higher confidence Indicated Resource classification.
“While we always drill holes to hit targets, we were prepared for the possibility of missing when drilling a deeper hole like DGDH052 – so the team were pretty excited to see good widths of our favourite style of gold mineralisation slide out into the core trays!
“Many high-grade gold mines, including many that my team and I have worked in, are lucky to see 30 to 50-gram x metre face and stope grades, equivalent to 3 to 5m widths of mineralisation grading ~10g/t gold grades. Those are good gold grades to be mining! By comparison, our Never Never drilling is consistently delivering plus 100-gram x metre intercepts, from surface to now almost 850m vertical depth below surface.
“Never Never is quickly becoming a major high grade gold discovery with gold at grades that are very rarely seen, with wide geometry and steep attitude. For Spartan and all our shareholders, building such a tremendous opportunity in front of existing infrastructure is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”
The Never Never Gold Deposit’s growth has a potentially transformative impact on the company’s resource estimates and future production prospects. With the deposit extending 170m below the current MRE and showing substantial expansion at depth, Spartan may be poised for a significant leap in resource classification.
The broader implications of these discoveries for the gold market are profound. In a time of economic uncertainty, when gold’s status as a ‘safe haven’ asset becomes increasingly attractive, high-grade discoveries like those at Never Never are a boon.
Spartan Resources had a market cap of $482M at time of writing and a cash holding of $40.1M (Q42023, with shares were trading up +9.49% intraday at $0.547.As Spartan prepares for further drilling and resource updates, the market watches on to see how deep and how rich the Never Never Gold Deposit is.
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