Marmota surges on bonanza South Australian grade gold

Drilling at Marmota Limited’s expansive Gawler gold project in South Australia’s returning Gawler Craton, where it has intersected bonanza grade gold hits across its newest project.

Marmota Limited (ASX: MEU) fired up the bourse this morning with a blistering second-batch of gold drill hits from its latest Greenewood gold project in South Australia’s Gawler Craton.

The company’s shares surged as much as 49 per cent in early trading this morning as fresh results from the project’s maiden drilling campaign returned bonanza gold grades across thick intersections throughout the 1-kilometre-long deposit.

Peak intercepts included a 4-metre hit at a scorching 43 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 64m downhole within a beefier 28m running 6.4g/t from 44m. That tops the previous standout of 4m at 38 g/t from 24m which sat inside 24m at 12 g/t at the very opposite end of the long deposit, highlighting the continuity and grade this near surface corridor appears to be delivering.

The thick zones of seriously impressive grades tell the real story, including further hits of 28m at 5.6g/t, a 16m section running 6.5 g/t and 28m grading 2.1g/t, all within the top 60m from surface.

This marks Marmota’s first swing at the prospect since 2018 when some 7000m of RC drilling wrapped up from previous owners – a mistake it would appear on their part.

The company’s latest blitz sank 146 holes for 15,480m averaging just 106m in depth. The new numbers back up a sharp-eyed review by geologist Dr Kevin Wills who spotted wide-open shoots, shallow blind spots and plenty of upside along the nearly 1000m of strike.

Those calls have panned out with high-grade lodes - far outpacing the original finds - pointing to fat resource growth at Greenewood, a fast growing favourite for Marmota in its “Arc of Six” gold prospects in the rich northwest Gawler Craton.

The project’s proximity to Marmota’s flagship Aurora Tank gold deposit creates obvious economies of scale, for already promising open-pitable gold resources in a mind-boggling $6100 an ounce gold price environment.

Greenewood is yielding some of the best gold results seen in the Gawler Craton since the discovery of the Challenger deposit. The results feature high grades, close to surface, with excellent continuity along strike and including exceptional thick high-grade intersections.

Marmota Limited Chairman Dr Colin Rose

Marmota’s Gawler gold project now blankets every untouched gold stash in a 10,000 square kilometre chunk of the Craton along the Gawler Gold Belt.

Greenewood lies 35km northwest of Marmota’s Aurora Tank deposit and 30km northeast of the Challenger mine which churned out 1.2 million ounces from 2002 to 2018. It anchors the Golden Moon joint venture where Marmota holds 90 per cent.

Three weeks ago, Marmota roped in Paul Richardson as Gawler Gold Project Manager, a battle-tested engineer who ran ops at St Barbara’s Mount Gibson gold mine and helmed Pacmin Mining at Carosue Dam.

Marmota has continued to make serious progress at its flagship Aurora Tank gold discovery at its Gawler Craton project, having plunged more than 70,000m of RC drilling into the deposit, delivering stunning gold grades up to 217g/t.

Marmota’s multi-commodity tool kit doesn’t stop at gold, with titanium sands at Muckanippie drawing heavyweight Richard Stockwell to join the company and a hefty uranium pile at Junction Dam rubs shoulders with Boss Energy’s Honeymoon.

The long-time junior gold explorer is now lining up as one of South Australia’s sharpest multi-metal play and if the Gawler Craton does end up return to its production heyday, it will likely be Marmota that gets it there.

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