Seasoned campaigner Paul Richardson to lead Marmota SA gold project
- Doug Bright
- Sep 18, 2025
- 4 min read
Resources executive Paul Richardson will bring a keen focus and decades of experience to develop Marmota Limited’s (ASX: MEU) Aurora Tank gold deposit in South Australia and its arc of six adjacent Gawler project gold deposits.
With more than 36 years in the resources sector, Richardson is a standout appointment as the company’s new Gawler gold – project manager and is tasked with helping Marmota achieve its ambitions in the underexplored Gawler Craton.
Recent metallurgical testwork at Aurora Tank demonstrated superb gold recoveries, which support the potential for low-cost, low-capex, open-pit heap leach production, with multiple bonanza-grade intersections near surface. Other adjacent gold prospects near Aurora include the Golden Moon joint venture tenements, which add significant scale.
As a mineral processing engineer, Richardson has managed diverse operations across Australasia and Africa, including open-pit and underground mining, employing processing methods such as flotation, gravity, electrostatic, magnetic, carbon-in-leach (CIL) and heap leach.
His career highlights include roles as general manager for Mount Gibson Gold, general manager for Pacmin Mining at the Carosue Dam gold mine and operations manager for St Barbara Mines.
Richardson has led multidisciplinary teams ranging from 10 to 450 personnel, in roles from superintendent to project director, specialising in guiding projects from scoping and feasibility studies through to full production.
His expertise aligns perfectly with Marmota’s Gawler gold project, which encompasses a promising arc of deposits west of the company’s Aurora Tank project. Aurora Tank is the company’s most advanced asset, with more gold projects almost certain to come online as exploration continues.
Paul has been engaged with the express purpose of taking our Gawler gold project to production. His skills and experience will be invaluable as we seek to unlock their full value.
Marmota Limited Executive Chairman Dr Colin Rose
Rose said that having held numerous senior positions across the mining and processing spheres, Richardson had the knowledge Marmota needed to realise Gawler’s value for shareholders.
At the company’s 90 per cent-owned Greenewood and Mainwood Golden Moon JV prospects, Marmota’s maiden drilling program delivered stunning results, including 24 metres assaying 12 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 20m depth and 28m going 5.6g/t from 24m.
The company expects to receive assays from a further 52 holes in about three weeks.
In previous drilling at Campfire Bore, also in the Golden Moon ground, bonanza hits included 107g/t gold from 57m, plus five intersections assaying more than 20g/t gold and 13 assaying more than 10g/t, underscoring the locality’s high-grade potential.
Other nearby targets, including the 90 per cent-owned Golf Bore prospect – 12 kilometres northwest of Aurora Tank - and its fully owned gold rights at the West Gawler Craton joint venture Monsoon and Typhoon deposits, all create clear economies of scale for a consolidated development strategy.
Marmota now controls all the unmined gold deposits in the currently interpreted arc of gold projects, which are arrayed around a major gravity anomaly in the northwest Gawler Craton.
This is a highly prospective area within the Woomera prohibited defence area that hosted Barton Gold Holdings’ nearby Challenger mine. Challenger produced more than one million ounces until it was shut down in 2018. Barton is now redeveloping the mine.
Recent strategic moves, including Marmota’s June acquisition of a 90 per cent interest in the Golden Moon tenements, have solidified the company’s dominant position in the “Arc of Six”, a cluster of high-grade gold deposits in the Gawler Craton project area.
Beyond gold, the extensive Gawler Craton project offers multi-commodity upsides with a high potential to sustain long-term operations.
Titanium sands have also emerged as an important focus, with bonanza-grade heavy mineral concentrations discovered in a palaeochannel in the southeast of the company’s vast area of tenure at Muckanippie.
Mineralisation includes rutile, pseudo-rutile and anatase in a sprawling 3.2km by 1.8km zone that remains open in all directions. It is potentially part of a 9km-long system within a palaeochannel that extends along 28km and up to 5km wide.
Located about 50km south of the company’s current gold assets and near a major railway, Muckanippie benefits from its shallow mineralisation and low deleterious radioactive content, positioning it for efficient processing in a critical minerals market.
Uranium potential at its Junction Dam prospect adds further value to the company’s impressive portfolio.
The strategically-located inferred 5.4-million-pound (Mlb) uranium oxide resource at Junction Dam’s Saffron prospect is accompanied by an estimated exploration target of between 22Mlb and 33Mlb of uranium oxide at a grade of between 400 parts per million (ppm) to 700ppm uranium oxide.
The exploration target incorporates the Saffron and other targets such as its Bridget and Yolanda prospects.
All three prospects are in the same palaeochannel as Boss Energy’s nearby Honeymoon mine with its estimated 36Mlb at 660ppm uranium oxide resource, and all are linked via major drainages to other regional uranium plays.
Marmota’s diversified portfolio – with gold leading the charge and titanium and uranium providing future optionality – could eventually support significant spin-outs to maximise value.
Richardson’s appointment will not only accelerate the development of Marmota’s gold pipeline but also potentially equip Marmota to navigate the broader multi-element opportunities in the Gawler Craton.
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