Spartan Resources has announced it has discovered shallow high-grade gold assays north of its Never Never gold mine in Western Australia.
The company said it has decided to expand the drilling program to 32,000m with up to six rigs operating on-site at the Patient Wolf prospect.
The expanded program will look to target extensions of known mineralisation, further upgrading the high-grade 721,200-ounce mineral resource estimate for the Never Never gold deposit, which forms part of the Dalgaranga gold project.
Spartan also said several “near-mine” targets are being aggressively drilled out, including the high-grade West Winds and Four Pillars structural targets, as well as the nearby Arc gold prospect to the north.
“The Spartan approach is a very simple one: Discover. Define. Deliver. High-grade gold ounces,” Spartan managing director and chief executive officer Simon Lawson said.
“One key focus in realising this strategy is minimising execution and operational risk by drilling high-confidence, high-grade gold resources.
“This focus has already delivered the significant 721,000-ounce, 5.85-grams-per-tonne-of-gold high-grade Never Never gold deposit.”
Spartan said the overall objective of its drilling program is to grow the company’s high-grade resource inventory within a close 2km radius of the 2.5-million-tonnes-per-annum Dalgaranga processing plant.
“We have proven we can discover, define and deliver,” Lawson said.
“We are well on-track to deliver a significant mineral resources estimate toward the end of this year as part of our vision to establish a solid plus five-year mine plan moving into 2024.”