Marmota’s bevy of untested anomalies could yield golden rewards

Marmota has bulked up its inventory of gold targets across its Gawler Craton project after a search of historical data yielded more than 40 untested anomalies.

Most of these gold-in-calcrete anomalies are located on the tenements that make up the Jumbuck gold project that it recently acquired, providing further validation for its goal of locking up acreage near the third-party Challenger gold mine that produced more than 1.2 million ounces of gold.

These anomalies could be potentially lucrative for Marmota (ASX:MEU) as both the 1.2Moz Challenger and its own Aurora Tank gold discovery, which includes a top result of 165 grams per tonne (g/t) gold over 1m, from a depth of 57m, were found by testing near surface calcrete for anomalous gold.

To have more than 40 such anomalies that were never followed up by previous owners is certain to have the company licking its lips in anticipation.

“Marmota is sitting on a remarkable bundle of gold anomalies, across an area that is already blossoming with gold discoveries,” chairman Dr Colin Rose said.

Gold-in-calcrete anomalies

The near-surface gold-in-calcrete anomalies were first discovered by Dominion Mining between 1997 and 2003 as an indicator of gold below surface in the area.

These untested anomalies were uncovered by Marmota following a comprehensive search of archival and historical gold-in-calcrete sampling across the expanded Gawler Craton project.

All of the anomalies have assays of between 20 ppb to 70ppb, well above the 10ppb that is considered to be anomalous.

By way of comparison, the highest ever gold-in-calcrete result recorded at the Aurora Tank (Goshawk) discovery was 38ppb gold.

marmota gold anomalies gawler craton — Untested gold anomalies. Pic: Supplied

Jumbuck acquisition and other activity

The discovery of the anomalies adds to the value of the Jumbuck project that the company had acquired from Tyranna Resources (ASX:TYX) for $3m following a three-way bidding war.

The tenements that make up Jumbuck already host six gold prospects with a JORC resource of over 300,000oz.

Marmota is also waiting on results from diamond drilling that it had completed at Aurora Tank to provide the detail needed to take it into production.

This includes geotechnical data, bulk density measurements for completing resource estimation and scoping/feasibility studies, and bulk samples for final metallurgical testing.

This article was developed in collaboration with Marmota, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.