Marmota (ASX:MEU) has recorded its ‘best-ever’ 4m composite intersections with reverse circulation drilling at its flagship Aurora Tank project in South Australia returning a top high-grade gold intersection of 4m at 70.4 grams per tonne (g/t) from a depth of 64m.
Perhaps more importantly, this hit is just 130m northeast of a previous 5m at 27g/t gold intersection, indicating that the company has uncovered what appears to be a continguous high-grade gold domain.
The extensional drilling program also intersected high-grade gold intersections to the north and at depth with hits of 4m at 9.2g/t from 80m and 4m at 7.3g/t from 120m respectively. Among just a few other hits…
Results above 5g/t gold are generally considered to be high-grade.
Chairman Dr Colin Rose says the successful program marks the eighth drilling program that the company has carried out at Aurora Tank, every one of which has been a success.
“This program has yielded new high-grade extensions to the North, West and at depth, significantly extended the NW flank, and yielded our current highest 4m intersection,” he added.
“I am delighted that Aurora Tank keeps on growing, that underlying fundamentals are strong, and so too the potential rewards to shareholders.
“Aurora Tank is fortunate to combine high-grade intersections that are close to surface, with excellent metallurgy, making Aurora Tank potentially amenable to low-cost low capex open-pittable heap leach methods, which are our clear focus.”
Marmota will shortly return to the drill site to collect detailed 1m samples on all intersections of interest for assaying, which is required for resource estimation work.
It is also looking to finalise ecological surveys and hydrology work that are necessary components for a mining lease.
High-grade gold
While the top hit and its indication of a near-surface, high-grade gold domain at Aurora Tank is certainly exciting, it is the extension of the mineralisation along the NW flank and at depth that could add significant scale to the project.
Marmota noted that while the NW flank was known to extend about 95m to the northeast a year ago, the current drilling program has extended the NW flank to about three times that distance with most northern hole returning a high-grade gold hit of 4m at 9.2g/t.
This remains open, meaning that there is still scope for further extensions with more drilling.
The company added that while it has been ‘very fortunate’ to have intersected high-grades close to surface, the latest drill program marks the first time that it has intersected high-grade gold at depths below 80m.
It says the intersection of 4m at 7.3g/t gold may be indicative of the presence of deeper high-grade shoots.
The presence of high-grade gold at depth is highly encouraging when combined with results from mineragraphic test work in May 2020.
This test work on gold grains sampled from a high-grade gold intersection had found the grains to be predominantly primary mineralisation with the colour indicating high purity gold.
Together, this suggests that their host mineralised lodes can be expected to geologically continue to depth below the zone that was just drilled.