Marmota Ltd (ASX: MEU) has tabled some stellar 1m assays from its Aurora Tank project in south Australia going up to an eye watering 50 grams per tonne. gold.
The impressive chunks that were originally received as 4m composites in October as part of a 90-hole program have now been broken down into 1m intervals.
Other big 1m intervals include 34 g/t gold from 43m, 29 g/t from 22m, 28 g/t from 41m and a 23 gram hit from 36m.
The 50-gram hit is contained within and equally impressive 7m intersection grading 14 grams per tonne gold and the 34-gram hit was contained within 3m grading 12 g/t.
The 29-gram intersection was contained within an impressive 8m at 10 g/t gold.
The shallow gold hits have expanded the company’s Aurora Tank deposit southwards with the planned infill program unexpectedly including some of the highest-grade hits encountered to date.
The company says its drilling was initially intended to fill in a few gaps and close off a handful of sections, however they will likely now expand Aurora Tank’s open pitable design with so many high-grade intercepts so close to surface. In fact, the latest section may yet prove to be the most profitable paydirt of the entire deposit.
Marmota says it is aiming to move as quickly as possible to a near-surface, low capex, open-pit gold mining scenario.
The company says the high-grade gold is also accompanied by favourable metallurgy, for which studies into optimising gold recoveries are expected shortly.
Everything is coming together for Aurora Tank: high-grade intersections, predominantly close to surface, with excellent metallurgy, making Aurora Tank amenable to low-cost low capex open-pit heap leach methods. The metallurgical testwork is about to complete – and as soon as that is done, we progress to resource work, open-pit design and PFS … all underpinned by surging gold fundamentals.
Marmota Chairman Dr Colin Rose
Marmota is also busy ramping up its first-ever drilling campaign at its shallow Campfire Bore gold discovery 30km to the east of Aurora Tank. The company’s maiden campaign at Campfire Bore has now been expanded to more than 20,000m of drilling, with the first phase of reverse circulation (RC) results expected in next month.
Management says Campfire Bore has “enormous potential to grow” having experienced minimal drilling of only near-surface gold, with just 10,000m of drilling to date exposing some 109,000 ounces of gold at the deposit.
The company will now move to flesh-out the emerging Campfire Bore with its belief the deposit could quickly rival the high-grade results at Aurora Tank.
With so much gold so close to surface exhibiting such stellar grades, Marmota will be spoilt for choice in how it ultimately monetises Aurora Tank but one thing seems certain – it will likely do so soon.
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