Spartan Resources: A new mine plan, new management, a new discovery and a new $1.4b market cap
Spartan Resources Managing Director Simon Lawson on 3AW, 2GB, 4BC & 6PR Bulls N' Bears Report
Listen to ASX-listed Spartan Resources Managing Director Simon Lawson talk to Matt Birney on the Bulls N’ Bears Report about Spartan’s incredible turnaround at its Dalgaranga gold project.
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Spartan Resources is a classic turnaround story. A year ago its share price was around 22c. It is now closer to $1.22. The company was originally Gascoyne Resources who merged with Firefly Resources and subsequently went into Administration after experiencing spotty grades in its Gilbley’s open pit at the Dalgaranga project in WA’s Murchison. A couple of years later, a new mine plan, new management and a spectacular new discovery just 300m from Gilbey’s and Spartan is now worth nearly $1.4b.
RADIO INTERVIEW - TRANSCRIPT
Matt Birney - Welcome to Bulls N' Bears brought to you today by gold developer Spartan Resources.
Matt Birney - I'm Matt Birney and I'm joined now by the Managing Director of Spartan Resources, Simon Lawson.
Matt Birney - Hi Simon
Simon Lawson - Hi Matt
Matt Birney - So Spartan Resources is a classic turnaround story. A year ago its share price was about 22c. It is now closer to $1.22. The company was originally Gascoyne Resources who fell in to admin after experiencing spotty grades at its Gilbey’s open pit at the Dalgaranga project in WA’s Murchison.
Matt Birney - The company subsequently merged with Firefly Resources and that merger came with a new mine plan, new management and a spectacular new discovery which was subsequently made just 150 from the old Gilbey’s open pit and Spartan is now worth about $1.4b.
Matt Birney - Okay Simon give me the very quick potted history and dot points of this Dalgaranga project.
Simon Lawson - We're located in the midwest Murchison region just outside of Mount Magnet which obviously is very well known for high grade gold and our focus is high gold and that's what we essentially did was focus on finding the best grades in that area and Dalgaranga has been delivering.
Matt Birney - You've just released an updated mineral resource for the project, what is it and how much has it grown?
Simon Lawson - Obviously we were pretty excited to put out 2.48 million ounces at 4.79 grams a tonne which is almost double what we previously put out in December only in the 2023 there.
Simon Lawson - That was a 47 per cent increase in project ounces and a 91 per cent increase in grade and that just is a reflection of that high grade focus.
Matt Birney - The Never Never Discovery right next to the old Gilbey’s open pit, I think about 150 meters away, has turbocharged this project. What's the resource at Never Never? How far away is the main body of it from the old pit and how do you plan to mine it?
Simon Lawson - It's about 300 meters away north of the old Gilbey’s open pit. We're putting in an exploration drill drive going down to that area which is going to be about 700 meters long but that resource now stands at 5.7 million tonnes at 8 grams a tonne, just over 1.4 million ounces of high grade.
Matt Birney - What are some of the best drill results at this project? I've seen some pretty big numbers come out of it.
Simon Lawson - Yeah that's right so early, sort of midway through November 22, we knew we're on to something pretty special. 59 meters at 12.5 grams a tonne, 54 meters at 6.5 grams a tonne, 32 meters at 8.6.
Simon Lawson - I mean these numbers are pretty significant in any gold project but we've been consistently delivering those kinds of outputs and outcomes from our drilling program since that time period, early 22.
Matt Birney - Now this project has a mothballed mining plant on it. What would it cost you to build that thing again from scratch and how much do you need to spend on it?
Simon Lawson - Look those are good questions, it's a 2.5 million tonne per annum plant. It was operating up until the end of 2022 when they shut it off.
Simon Lawson - I knew we had a great discovery and I just didn't want to lose control of that and what we've done is basically rebuilt that story around that plant so we're looking now at the best way to run that plant, optimize that plant and bring it back into operation and the best way possible to achieve maximum recovery.
Simon Lawson - Now in terms of how much that will cost that is a rubbery number at this stage and we're doing a number of studies to come to a conclusion on that.
Matt Birney - Well I know you had 93 million bucks in the bank at last report so well done to you.
Matt Birney - Simon Lawson from Spartan Resources
Matt Birney - Thanks for joining me on Bulls N' Bears and remember we're only here to give you information, not advice, which you should of course seek independently.
Matt Birney - I'm Matt Birney and this is Bulls N' Bears.
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