Aureka uncovers high-grade silver twist at Victorian gold play
Brought to you by Bulls and Bears
Doug Bright
Aureka Limited has recovered fresh high-grade gold and remarkable silver from 2025 diamond drilling at its Comstock project at St Arnaud, 200 kilometers northwest of Melbourne in central western Victoria.
Major final analysis from a diamond drill hole included 0.3 meters measuring 650 grams per tonne (g/t) silver and 1.91 g/t gold from 192 m, the project’s highest silver grade to date. A second hole was drilled at an angle of 0.42 m from 186.4 m, yielding 8.5 g/t gold and 22 g/t silver.
Originally named New Bendigo, the St Arnaud goldfield was first discovered in 1855. This is a historic mining area known for both alluvial and quartz reef mining, producing over 11,970kg of gold at the time, averaging a nice grade of 15 grams per tonne, with additional silver credits.
The Comstock mine is located within the large St Arnaud gold field, 2 km north of the historic town of St Arnaud. Last mined in 1995, this mine has a prominent open pit along the Nelson reef line, characterized by quartz-hosted gold in the cutting zone.
‘This growth comes at a time when the Company is actively advancing its options to commercialize Comstock.’
James Gurry, managing director of Aureka Limited
This silver-rich region is hosted in a quartz vein parallel to layers within the massive sandstone, located on the footwall of the newly interpreted Comstock basal fault. The structure has never been drilled and can be traced to the surface north of the open pit.
A previous diamond hole recorded and reported late last year intersected 0.3m of 31.5g/t gold (an impressive ounce per tonne) from a depth of 127.5m in relation to visible gold.
This hit is located 140 meters west of the Comstock fault and indicates the existence of a new subparallel mineral structure beyond the company’s existing gold resource.
The company’s latest catches build on 2025 highlights, including a 1m diamond drill strike north of the pit that grading 65.37g/t solid gold containing a whopping 0.3m sweetener of 109g/t.
A deeper diamond hole was drilled 6.9m at 4.24g/t gold from 422m, including 0.75m at 18.6g/t gold from 422.1m and 0.75m at 19.9g/t gold from 435.9m.
Aureka Limited managing director James Gurry said: “It is great to see St Arnaud Comstock growing on multiple fronts, northwards as reported in November, westwards as reported in December, and now growing in metal diversity with high grade silver intercepts.”
The company says geological updates now confirm the along-strike and downward continuity of the west-dipping Comstock Shear in the north of the trench, with the basal fault showing significant alteration and veining.
Footwall drilling hints at depth potential for higher-grade shoots, with gold aligned with quartz veins parallel to the zone’s bedding, often associated with carbonaceous shales and a gold-silver-lead base metal signature.
Encouragingly, the results all fall outside Aureka’s maiden JORC compliant inferred resource of 1.45 million tonnes in June 2025 at 1.21 g/t gold for 56,500 ounces of gold.
Moreover, the results fall within Aureka’s defined Exploration Target of 3.0 to 3.5 million tonnes, grading between 1 and 1.2 g/t gold for 112,000 to 116,000 ounces gold with silver credits.
From a development perspective, and given that gold prices remain strong, the timing of the latest results could not be better. Comstock is a past-producing open pit with established access and is located within trucking distance of several operating gold mills in Victoria.
To ensure high-quality Comstock is operational and generating revenue, Aureka engaged small-scale Victorian gold production specialists Core Prospecting to de-risk a fast track to first production.
Recent successes further strengthen Comstock’s upside towards near-term economic potential through resource growth close to existing infrastructure and new forward-looking structures.
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