Marmota surges on bonanza gold at growing South Australian play
Brought to you by BULLS AND BEARS
Andrew Todd
Marmota Limited has set the market on fire with its latest analysis from its first drilling at the Greenewood gold project in South Australia, revealing up to 109 grams per tonne (g/t) of high-grade gold covering an area of approximately 1 kilometre.
The company’s shares jumped as much as 76 percent in early trading today, hitting a high of 12.5 cents; Detailed 1-meter split results confirmed thick, high-order intercepts near the surface, far surpassing the initial 4 million composite released in October.
Standout results include a scorching 109 g/t gold across 1 meter of a solid 33m intercept running at 10 g/t gold from 22m and another heavy hit of 22 meters running at 5.1g/t gold from 49m.
The final set of results yielded 28 intercepts greater than 10 g/t; Half of the high-grade 1-meter fissures are located between 17 m and 27 m above the surface. The entire balance came from within 67 meters of the surface.
The results outline an almost completely continuous, high-grade deposit that extends along strike for more than 900 m and is still open to extension. The extraordinary thickness and continuity appear to be among the best finds in the region at least since Dominion Mining discovered the million-ounce Challenger deposit in 1995, sparking a new gold rush in the Gawler Craton.
Detailed analyzes arrived later than expected because the elevated gold values exceeded standard laboratory limits and special retesting was required to address the extremes.
Marmota’s first crack at Greenewood marks the first discovery at the site since 2018, when the previous owners stopped work after drilling just 7000m. The company’s attack drilled 146 holes across 15,480 m into the resulting embankment, providing a clear view of the open shoots at depth and the upper part with abundant expansion.
The prospect now underpins Marmota’s wider Gawler gold project. The company’s flagship Aurora Tank is located just 35 km northwest of the gold deposit and 30 km northeast of the historic Challenger mine, which pumped 1.2 million ounces from 2002 to 2018.
Marmota says Greenewood’s proximity to Aurora Tank opens clear avenues for joint efficiency, especially given Aurora Tank’s outstanding good qualities near the surface.
The company calls the Gawler gold assets “Gold Arc” prospects, which surround the prominent Y-shaped gravity feature in the northwest of the craton. The spring hosts a chain of sediment from the Aurora Tank in the East, Golf Hole, Campfire Hole, Greenewood and Mainwood, as well as Monsoon and Typhoon in the West.
More importantly, Marmota says it controls all the unmined gold zones in this belt, positioning it as a serious player in the Gawler Craton gold revival story; This also looks like it’s just heating up.
The company says its phase two drilling campaign at Greenewood began last month and is already well ahead of schedule, targeting up to 85 holes at 8,500 meters with a mix of cascades and infills. The program aims to draw the boundaries and lay the foundation for the first resource next year.
A new scoping exercise for the wider Gawler gold holdings was also launched in November, putting the wheels in motion for optimized development.
In a gold market where prices remain stable above AU$6200 per ounce, the high-grade, near-surface gold deposits along Marmota’s Gold Arc are generating real interest and potentially moving the company from explorer to low-cost producer in short order.
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