Marmota Ltd (ASX:MEU) has delivered further high-grade gold results from its October 2021 diamond drilling program at the Aurora Tank Gold Project in South Australia.
The company’s main objective of the program was to collect core samples required for pit optimisation, compressive strength, and other geotechnical testing and additional metallurgical tests to take the project to production.
New high-grade gold intersections, close to surface, include:
- 3.6 metres at 25 g/t gold from 29 metres;
- 3.4 metres at 12 g/t from 44 metres;
- 1 metre at 21 g/t from 66 metres; and
- 2 metres at 9 g/t from 40 metres.
Importantly, the program has yielded the first high-grade gold northeast of the deposit, including 1 metre at 21 g/t.
This is particularly relevant as Marmota will be testing the sub-parallel zone extensions in the ongoing reverse circulation (RC) program that began early this week.
Production-focused program
Marmota chairman Dr Colin Rose said: “The main purpose of the diamond program is to enable Marmota to complete the necessary testing work to take us into production.
“With the assay results now in hand, we know which core intervals have grade, and so we can get the final stage metallurgical testing underway.
“The attaining of excellent assay results from a production-focused program, with only 16 holes, many of which were abandoned by the first driller, with multiple high-grade intersections, is an unexpected bonus.
“The expansion of high-grade gold to the northeast is an additional bonus.“
Objectives
Marmota’s 16-hole diamond program is primarily a production-focused program, designed to provide the necessary detail to advance Aurora Tank to production, including:
- Geotechnical: design of optimal pit walls;
- Bulk density measurements: required for resource estimation and scoping/feasibility studies;
- Bulk samples: to enable final phase metallurgical testing.
Rose adds: “But the best news is that, with the assays finally in, everything can start moving again!
“We are very fortunate that Aurora Tank combines 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.”
Forward plan
Assays have now arrived from the detailed structural logging of the core that was carried out, along with multiple geotechnical analyses prior to core cutting.
Marmota kicked off a fully funded, five-week, 85-hole, 10,000-metre RC drill program at Aurora Tank early this week.
This is hoped to be the final drilling program at Aurora Tank before a mining lease application is lodged.