Marmota’s bonanza +200g/t gold hit is a signpost to greater riches

Marmota (ASX:MEU) is sitting on a golden prize at its Aurora Tank project in South Australia’s highly prospective Gawler Craton if latest extensional drilling returning best-ever bonanza grades of over 200 grams per tonne (g/t) gold are anything to go by.

Aurora Tank is already well known for having shallow, high-grade gold which lends itself to low-cost, open pit mining and ore that is amendable to processing using conventional heap leach methods.

However, the latest result of 1m at 217g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 118m in hole 22ATRC024 has clearly indicated that the company has some very rich mineralisation to follow-up on towards the southwest of the main mineralisation.

This is backed by other high-grade intersections such as 1m at 42g/t gold from 77m, 1m at 32g/t gold from 32m and 1m at 28g/t gold from 43m in the same zone – neatly meeting the company’s goal of expanding the potential extent of the open pit at Aurora Tank.

It also marks the fifth drill program in which Marmota has intersected grades of more than 100g/t gold over 1m, the last of which was the previous highest intercept of 1m at 197g/t gold in 20ATRC324 on the extension to the northwest flank.

marmota gold aurora tank intercept — Extensional drilling has returned the highest grade intercept of 217g/t gold at Aurora Tank. Pic: Supplied

Further gold mineralisation

Marmota noted that while previous drilling had intersected very high-grade gold close to surface, the new zone appears deeper as well as structurally distinct and separate from the high-grade NW flank.

It appears to follow a similar orientation to the adjacent NW flank, becoming shallower to the southwest and deeper to the northeast.

The company plans to track and develop this zone to the southwest as a top priority in the hope of finding another high-grade zone like the NW flank.

“It is remarkable to return assays of over 200g/t gold over a metre, but even more remarkable to do so as part of an extensional program, in this case exploring ground to the SW,” chairman Dr Colin Rose said.

“This is the fifth time Marmota has intersected bonanza grades of around 100g/t or more at Aurora Tank, and now very pleasing to see our best ever results extend into fresh rock.

“The new intersections at the SW have the added advantage that they are getting closer to surface as we track them southwards.”