Shares in Gascoyne Resources were up more than 12% yesterday after the company surprised with a quick update on assays from a new drilling project on the wonderfully named Never Never prospect near its Dalgaranga Gold Mine in the Murchison region of Western Australia goldfields.
The latest drilling seems to have enlarged the size of the new prospect significantly and Gascoyne said in Monday’s report that the ’new results confirm Never Never as a major gold discovery”.
It was only last Friday that Gascoyne released its September quarter report with initial resource figures for the Gilbey’s North-Never Never deposits which are to the north of the Dalgarang mine.
The company said in the quarterly report that the maiden resource with a total was 1.43 million tonnes of ore @ 2.32 grams to the tonne (g/t) gold for 107,200 ounces for the recently discovered Gilbey’s North-Never Never Gold Deposits. That comprised 660,000 tonnes @ 3.78g/t for 79,600 ounces at the Never Never Gold Deposit and 780,000 tonnes @ 1.10g/t for 27,600 ounces at Gilbey’s North Gold Deposit.
“Multiple high-grade hits outside the Never Never Resource envelope,” Gascoyne said in the quarterly.
Gascoyne had previously described Never Never as “a high-grade, west-striking and steeply-plunging gold deposit discovered while following up wide, high-grade drill intercepts from the earlier Gilbey’s North extension discovery, immediately north of the Gilbey’s open pit at Dalgaranga.”
On Monday the company reported the deepest and highest-grade gold result from the Never Never deposit with diamond drilling at the deposit returned 12 metres at 34.5 grams to the tonne (g/t) gold from 397 metres downhole, including 0.47 metres at huge 643 g/t gold.
Importantly, the company said the drill hole results were accompanied by visible gold mineralisation and came from down-plunge and outside of the recently-released 79,600-ounce mineral resource estimate.
Additional diamond drilling to test the geometry and structure of the Never Never lode also returned eight metres at 5.17 g/t gold from 62 metres and six metres at 7.78 g/t from 116 metres downhole.
This drill hole was completed in an” interpreted intersection zone between the Never Never and Gilbey’s North deposits, returning mineralisation outside the current MRE.”
Gascoyne Resources CEO, Simon Lawson said in Monday’s statement the Never Never deposit remained one of the most “remarkable” gold deposits he had ever seen.
“It’s very rare to see such a combination of high-tenor and high-grade mineralisation over widths of this magnitude,” Mr Lawson said.
“Our geologists are super excited as we drill each hole and, with such amazing intercepts being delivered with each successive step-out, it is becoming increasingly clear that this is one of the most significant new gold discoveries anywhere in Australia.”
Despite what the company has labelled a “challenging operational quarter”, Gascoyne said it hoped the mining operations at Never Never would provide a “clearer runway” to establish higher-grade mill feed and, therefore, a more robust production schedule to rely on.
Drilling is continuing with the aim of delivering extension data to update and upgrade the Never Never MRE in the near term.
The discoveries at Gilbey’s North and Never Never will slot right into the existing Dalgaranga operation which produced more than 71,000 ounces of gold in the year to June 30 this year.
The operation’s key is a 2.5 million tonnes a year gold processing plant which seems able to accommodate extra ore from the new areas.
The operation is underpinned by a modern, 2.5Mtpa CIL gold processing plant which represents a strategic asset in the district. Dalgaranga produced over 71,000oz of gold in the 2022 financial year.
The shares closed up 12.2% at 23 cents.
