Spartan Resources has already exceeded its latest record for deep intercepting at its newly discovered Pepper prospect in Western Australia.
According to Spartan, the new deepest intercept, 30.79 metres (m) at 12.12 grams per tonne of gold (g/t) from a 647.67m down-hole, expands Pepper’s potential high-grade resource.
“The parent hole to the recently reported deepest intercept at Pepper of 25.24m at 16.66g/t gold rewrites history again, being deeper still and returning an exceptional intercept,” Spartan managing director and chief executive officer Simon Lawson said.
“These two holes are separated by about 50m and demonstrate the continuity of thick, high-grade gold mineralisation at this exciting new and growing prospect.”
Pepper sits within the Dalgaranga gold project, which has also seen strong progress. Recent drilling at the project’s Never Never deposit recorded an intercept equalling 19.67m at 19.43g/t gold from a 765.33m down-hole.
“The Never Never gold deposit also continues to throw up pleasant surprises, with a new thick and consistently high-grade intercept from within the inferred area of the existing mineral resource estimate (MRE),” Lawson said.
“This near 400 gram x metre result provides strong support for our objective of converting inferred ounces to the higher confidence indicated category by in-filling this part of the existing MRE.
“These two intercepts from Pepper and Never Never are, respectively, our fifth and sixth best-ever drilled at Dalgaranga – highlighting the potential of this mineral system to keep delivering exceptional results the more we drill.”
A maiden mineral resource estimate for the Pepper prospect is expected to be completed as part of the scheduled mid-year resource update for Dalgaranga.
Spartan is also collecting submissions for its underground exploration drill drive intended to grow Never Never’s underground resource.
The company said it has already received applications from four major underground mining contractors.
The submissions are being evaluated and the exploration drill drive development contract is scheduled to be awarded in July.