Marmota hits thick bonanza gold in SA Gawler extension
Marmota Limited (ASX: MEU) has come out swinging from a maiden drilling program at the company's Mainwood prospect in South Australia, with the first assays returning a suite of high-grade, near-surface gold intersections. The initial results from the prospect, which could represent a southern extension of the company’s Greenewood discovery, include a top hit of four metres at an impressive 15 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from just 24m downhole.
Other significant four-4metre -intercepts from the first batch of assays include 4m at 14g/t gold from 32m, 4m at 13g/t gold from 28m and 4m at 9.4g/t gold from 64m.
The results are from the first 15 of 84 planned drill sections at Mainwood, which forms part of the company’s Gawler Craton gold project, 35 kilometres northwest of its flagship Aurora Tank gold deposit.
The drilling is part of a major 31,000-metre -reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign designed to test for potential extensions of the Greenewood discovery, particularly to the south where management believes it could connect with the Mainwood zone. If that connection can be proven, the total strike distance for the two combined zones could extend for more than two kilometres. and And the latest results from Mainwood seem to confirm the company’s exploration model is spot on.
A glowing slew of 11 other solid results has also rolled in, with grades topping 5g/t gold within broader zones of up to 28m that all averaging better than 2.1g/t gold. StandoutsThey include 4m at 8.8g/t gold from 32m, 4m at 8.2 g/t gold from 24m within 16m going 2.2g/t gold, and 4m at 7.8 g/t gold from 28m, part of a longer run of 12m assaying 2.7g/t gold.
Two of the wider mineralised zones intersected include 16m at 4.2g/t gold from 24m, containing the headline intercept of 4m at 15g/t gold from 24m, and 20m at 3.1g/t gold from 32m, featuring the second-best four-4metre run of 4m at 14g/t gold.
Notably, all the results reported are from initial 4m-composite assays. Composite sampling and analysis is a common time-saving and cost-effective first-pass exploration technique in which four individual one-metre 1m-drill samples are combined to create a single sample for analysis.
Tantalisingly, while Marmota's composite results are truly impressive in their own right, the initial compositing method can sometimes dilute higher-grade zones. The real intrigue now lies in the pending re-split analyses of the individual one-1metre -samples that make up these high-grade composites. Any punter who has been around the markets for a while knows that a four-4metre -composite sample running 15g/t gold could be hiding some even more spectacular 1m-grades within it.
This is Marmota’s maiden drill program to the south of Greenewood (in the Mainwood zone). The discovery of contiguous high-grade gold, so close to surface, first in the Greenewood zone, and now also in the Mainwood zone, is very exciting. It massively extends the strike of the deposit, and it is a wonderful start to the inflow of assays. Marmota Limited Chairman Dr Colin Rose
Marmota’s strategy is to drill systematically south from its Greenewood discovery to determine whether the mineralisation continues and eventually links up with the historic Mainwood prospect. These early results from the southern end of the Mainwood target area suggest the company could be onto a continuous, high-grade mineralised system.
The company says the drilling has achieved its key objectives of identifying a contiguous high-grade gold zone at Mainwood, already expanding the resource for the combined prospects and increasing the drillhole density to a level that could support an indicated resource for a future scoping study.
With drilling ongoing and a steady stream of assays from the remaining 69 sections yet to come, Marmota looks set to generate plenty of newsflow. Given the quality of these early hits from Mainwood, the market will no doubt be watching closely to see what the next batch of assays delivers.
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