Marmota Ltd (ASX:MEU) has completed a diamond drilling program at its highly prospective gold project – Aurora Tank in South Australia.
MEU’s tenement holding is in the highly prospective and underexplored Gawler Craton, near the Challenger gold mine, in the Woomera Prohibited Defence Area.
This successful program, designed to advance Aurora Tank toward production, saw MEU drill 16 holes for a total of 1,247 metres and total core of 909 metres at a maximum depth of 217 metres.
The program has taken just over two weeks to complete – an impressive achievement after MEU had to call in a new rig operator at short notice to get the job done before a scheduled Woomera closure.
GMP drilling took on the job in late September after the previous driller abandoned various holes as a consequence of the equipment not being fit-for-purpose.
All worked out in the end with the increased total metres and holes, including holes that had to be re-drilled by the new driller, achieving near 100% recoveries.
According to MEU, the new drill achieved more than twice the daily drill metres of the previous rig, without any of the previous problems, without any abandoned holes, without any rods lost and without any substantive rig issues.
Objectives to lead to production
To help bring Aurora Tank into production, the diamond drilling program was primarily focused on three key aims:
1. Geotechnical: Design of optimal pit walls at Aurora Tank.
2. Bulk Density measurements: Required for completing (a) resource estimation and (b) scoping/feasibility studies.
3. Bulk samples: To enable final phase metallurgical testing across: a) different weathering zones (from strongly weathered oxide zones to deeper fresh rock) and b) different areas of the deposit, including the first diamond drilling in the high-grade NW flank.
"Visible gold"
“A preliminary inspection of the diamond drilling core has revealed sightings of visible gold which is plainly promising, and a new first for Aurora Tank,” Marmota chairman Dr Colin Rose said.
“As the primary purpose of this program is production-related, it is important to note that there are a number of critical steps that have to be completed before the core is cut and sent for assay.
"These steps include detailed structural and lithological logging of the core, along with multiple geotechnical analyses (point load testing, strength tests, shear tests, triaxial tests, Atterberg limit tests).
“This information is essential for progressing Aurora Tank through resource estimation, design of pit wall optimisation, and completing final metallurgical testing and feasibility studies.”