Marmota Ltd (ASX:MEU) now has its drill rig on-site at the Aurora Tan Project, where it will begin an 85-hole, 10,000-metre reverse circulation (RC) drill program to hole depths of 117 metres.
Drilling is fully funded and expected to take five weeks to complete and it is expected that this will be the final drilling program at Aurora Tank before a mining lease application is lodged.
“We are hoping this will be our final drill program at Aurora Tank prior to our lodging a Mining Lease application at Aurora Tank. The program develops a number of parallel extensions that are still open, and should enable us to complete work on an optimal open pit design,” Marmota Chairman Dr Colin Rose said.
The South Australian mining exploration company is focused on gold, copper and uranium, with its gold exploration endeavours centred on MEU’s dominant tenement holding in the highly prospective and underexplored Gawler Craton, near the Challenger gold mine.
Marmota’s Aurora Tank tenement and tenements around the Challenger Gold Mine.
Program objectives
Marmota's campaign has several objectives, including testing several holes (some of which are early-stage reconnaissance work) that form part of the Accelerated Discovery Initiative (ADI) at both Aurora Tank and on surrounding tenements (Woorong Downs and Comet), which are jointly funded by the South Australian Government under a grant awarded to Marmota.
However, MEU’s key objectives include:
1. NW Flank
Testing further extensions to the new NW flank, which has recently tripled in strike and is yielding hits like:
- 3 metres at 72 g/t gold from 66 metres, including 1 metre at 197 g/t;
- 5 metres at 27 g/t from 38 metres, including 1 metre at 105 g/t;
- 3 metres at 29 g/t from 63 metres, including 1 metre at 74 g/t; and
- 4 metres at 15 g/t from 67 metres, including 1 metre at 53 g/t.
Aurora Tank: location and grade of best intersections over 1 metre (circled) + new NW flank.
2. Sub-parallel Extensions to the N and NE (in parallel to the NW flank).
3. Extensions at depth targeting primary mineralisation.
4. Extensions to the east of the Aurora Tank mineralised zone 1.
5. Selected drilling to aid resource modelling and optimal pit design, or where previous holes were not deep enough.