Marmota has wrapped up a massive 32,085-metre reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign at its Greenewood and more recently defined Mainwood gold discoveries in South Australia’s mineral-rich Gawler Craton, with the next batch of assays from the program due as early as next week.
The company says the drilling blitz, involving 337 holes and expanded several times from the initial scope, successfully stretched the total strike distance of gold mineralisation along the two adjacent discoveries to more than two kilometres. The program was split between the southern extension, now dubbed the “Mainwood” zone, which saw 227 holes for 19,017m in a maiden drill-out, and the original Greenewood discovery, which it peppered with an additional 110 holes for 13,068m.
The Greenewood and Mainwood prospects form part of the Golden Moon Joint Venture, in which Marmota holds a 90 per cent interest. Both prospects occupy the company’s broader Gawler gold project, 35 kilometres north-west of its flagship, 100 per cent-owned Aurora Tank gold deposit.
Marmota’s previous exploration at Greenewood has already generated a raft of stunning gold results, including a 24-metre hit grading an impressive 12 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from just 20m and a 28-metre intercept at 5.6g/t gold from 24m in its maiden drilling program a year ago. Those shallow, high-grade results spurred a significantly expanded program, which has now been completed.
The company’s geologists may have cracked the code in the area, striking gold by drilling slightly deeper than previous explorers who came up empty-handed. The more recent discovery of the Mainwood zone south of Greenewood has proved to be a particularly significant milestone, marking the first drilling at the prospect in eight years.
Mainwood was originally identified through regional calcrete sampling, the same technique that led to the discovery of the nearby historic multi-million-ounce Challenger gold mine in 1995, now fully owned by Barton Gold after it acquired the project and the accompanying central Gawler gold plant in 2019.
While the mine has been on care and maintenance since 2018, Barton Gold is working towards bringing it back to life, with a definitive feasibility study targeting a “stage one” restart. The company is now putting the finishing touches on structural, metallurgical and drilling programs as it lays the groundwork for a full mill refurbishment and a return to gold production.
Unlike other deposits in the region’s famed “Arc of Gold”, the Greenewood discovery itself does not have a surface gold-in-calcrete anomaly. Marmota management believes this may be a key differentiator, hinting at the potential for further discoveries in the area where traditional surface sampling methods may have missed the mark.
The first batch of assays from the current program revealed outstanding near-surface gold hits, including contiguous high-grade zones starting just 24m below surface. Those results comprised a deluge of four-metre composite samples that seemingly rained gold, including a best run of 16 metres assaying 4.2g/t gold, featuring a four-metre core going at 15g/t gold. Twelve more four-metre and two eight-metre composite samples averaged better than 5g/t gold, all from downhole depths ranging from 24m to 48m below surface.
The next suite of results, expected next week, will come from Greenewood, where drilling has targeted northward and depth extensions.
Marmota is running the Greenewood and Mainwood exploration drilling in parallel with its flagship Aurora Tank project, which also boasts outstanding near-surface gold, including multiple bonanza-grade hits of more than 100g/t gold over one-metre intercepts.
Metallurgical testwork evaluating 31 drill core sub-composites across 197 metres of varying weathering profiles has yielded outstanding gold recoveries of up to 93 per cent - a result considered exceptionally high for column leach metallurgy.
Those recoveries confirm that feed material from Aurora Tank is highly amenable to heap leach processing, allowing the company to potentially bypass the higher capex required for a traditional gold processing plant. Backed by these results, Marmota believes the project has a good shot at entering production and has engaged consultants for mine planning and design.
With a healthy $15.9 million in cash and equivalents at the end of the March quarter, the company is well-funded to keep the drill rods turning and to push ahead with its production aspirations.
With its hefty drilling campaign now in the bag and a pipeline of assay results about to land on its desks, the company is systematically building on resounding exploration successes. If the upcoming results from the Greenewood-Mainwood combo echo the high-grade hits seen previously, they could add serious tonnage to Marmota’s inventory as it rounds the corner onto the final straightaway towards becoming a gold producer.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au