Spartan Resources (ASX: SPR) has kicked off an extensive 2025 drilling campaign at the 100%-owned Dalgaranga Gold Project in the Murchison region of Western Australia.
Surface drilling has re-commenced on-site with two diamond drilling rigs operating initially at the recently discovered Freak Prospect and the Sly Fox Gold Deposit, with the aim of delivering further resource growth and converting Inferred Resources to Indicated. Other near-mine targets have also been prioritised, including immediately north of Never Never and south of Freak as part of a 20,000m surface drilling campaign for the first half of CY2025.
Underground drilling contractor AUD has commenced mobilisation to site, with drilling to commence in February. 65,000m has been budgeted for CY2025, focusing on West Winds, Four Pillars, Freak, Pepper and Never Never.
The company has also received assay results from surface drilling completed in late 2024, confirming up-dip extensions of the Pepper Deposit above and outside the current MRE envelope and lateral extensions of the Four Pillars Prospect. Due to proximity to the Juniper Decline, follow-up targeting will be conducted by underground drilling in the June Quarter.
Follow-up drilling of the Freak Prospect, immediately south of Pepper, has highlighted potential extensions at least 300m to the south with a high-grade intercept of 0.29m @ 7.94g/t gold from 813.32m
Spartan is adopting a similar approach to Freak as it did to the high-grade Pepper discovery in early 2024. Systematic drilling testing is being employed to build the geological dataset at depth to improve its knowledge base and future drill targeting for both surface and underground drilling campaigns. A key focus now will be on the up-dip area above the discovery hole, where drilling has yet to occur.
“After wrapping up 2024 with a landmark resource upgrade and $220 million capital raising, Spartan enters the New Year with significant momentum and activity levels quickly moving up a gear. After a well-deserved break, the exploration team has hit the ground running with surface drilling already underway and our recently appointed underground drilling contractor, AUD, on track to start underground drilling operations next month," Executive Chair, Simon Lawson, said.
“With at least 85,000m of drilling budgeted – 65,000m of underground drilling and 20,000m of surface drilling through to mid-year – we expect to continue our exceptional track record of delivering further growth in our high-grade resource inventory. Our focus will initially be on drilling out the exciting new Freak discovery and extending and upgrading both Never Never and Pepper. The underground drilling positions will also allow us to spend more time drilling out West Winds and Four Pillars and targeting other exciting new opportunities.
“Assay results returned from drilling completed right towards the end of 2024 have continued to demonstrate the significant growth potential of all these positions. This includes a strong intercept sitting 100m above Pepper, a significant extensional result at Four Pillars and a high-grade intercept sitting ~300m down-dip of the Freak discovery.
“Our next project-wide MRE update is scheduled for mid-year, with the delivery of the Feasibility Study on the restart of the Dalgaranga Operation expected to follow shortly afterwards. That Feasibility Study will be based on the updated 2.868Moz project-wide Mineral Resource Estimate delivered in December last year. In the meantime, we are continuing to make exceptional progress operationally, with the development of the initial part of the Juniper Decline now sufficiently complete to allow the start of underground drilling, and more than 1,230m of underground development completed overall. At the current rate of progress, we expect the exploration drive scope of the Juniper Decline to be within 100m of the Never Never deposit before the end of June, which will be another huge milestone for the team!
“With the gold price continuing to hit new records, the backdrop has never been better for Spartan to capitalise on the enormous opportunities in front of us and turn Dalgaranga into one of the most exciting new high-grade gold operations in Australia, if not the world! Spartan shareholders can look forward to another year of energy, excitement and value-creation across the business.”
