Aureka strikes visible gold in Victoria

Stunning shows of visible gold in drilling at Aureka Ltd’s Comstock prospect in Victoria.

Aureka Limited (ASX: AKA) has hit visible gold in seven separate spots within a single diamond drill hole at its emerging Comstock prospect at the St Arnaud project in western Victoria, setting up massive anticipation around the final assay results.

The multiple gold shows point to the fresh high-grade potential north of an existing 56,500 ounce inferred resource at Comstock, with the company indicating the new results are from just the second hole logged of a seven-hole program.

Management says its fine grains of visible gold appear littered throughout quartz veins between 115.4m and 124.1m down hole, as logging and sampling continue on the hole and in four others.

With laboratory assays due in about three weeks for some 2253m of drilling, the signs of life at depth look promising for this historically high-grade goldfield.

The company says a detailed review of the local stratigraphy is running alongside the lab work to additionally sharpen future drill targets.

It is wonderful to see occurrences of visible gold now at St Arnaud Comstock. With a JORC Resource and further encouraging drill results in close proximity to several operating mills, Comstock represents a possible future pathway to small scale production.

Aureka Ltd Managing Director James Gurry

Aureka’s visible gold sits outside the current 56,500-ounce inferred resource grading at 1.21 grams per tonne (g/t), lifting company hopes that the deposit can easily stretch towards the exploration target of 112,000 to 116,000 ounces at 1.0g/t to 1.2g/t.

Earlier drilling in the same program delivered solid hits in hole one, including 6.9m at 4.24g/t from 422m and 3.2m at 4.71g/t from 434m with a 0.6m slice running 19.9g/t. Mineralisation ties to sheared quartz reefs laced with pyrite, galena and sphalerite inside the NNW-trending Comstock shear, a structure known for steep-plunging shoots in the St Arnaud goldfield.

St Arnaud once averaged 15g/t across 400,000 ounces of mined gold. The old Comstock pit lies in a fenced public reserve just 2km north of the St Arnaud township, close to several operating mills that could handle small-scale toll treating if grades continue to hold up.

Elsewhere the rods keeps turning at Aureka’s flagship Irvine gold project, chasing extensions to an existing 304,000-ounce inferred resource.

Aureka holds the broader St Arnaud tenure covering 819 square kilometres of the old high-grade Victorian style goldfields.

With continued visible gold and a twin drill rig approach to push ounce growth at depth, early signs look promising that exploration targets will at least be hit if not exceeded. Assays from the latest Comstock core will be the deciding factor, no doubt dictating the next move in just a few weeks.

Visible gold in a drill core always makes for a touch of excitement. Aureka’s multiple visible gold hits in the same hole will have the market meerkats sitting bolt upright when the assays hit the market.

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