Marmota has extended its gold drilling programme beyond two kilometres at the Greenewood discovery in South Australia’s Gawler Craton, sending its shares more than 14 per cent higher to 7.4 cents. The first results from the campaign could be released as early as next week.
The company said drilling north and south of Greenewood had encountered further zones of favourable geology resembling areas that have previously produced high-grade gold intersections.
Those indications have led Marmota to lengthen the programme, which is now expected to continue until early October. The extension is expected to provide a flow of assay results over the coming weeks as samples are processed.
Greenewood gold drilling expands towards Mainwood
The programme has so far completed 313 holes, including 110 at Greenewood and 203 across its southern extension into the Mainwood zone. Together, the prospects now appear to cover more than two kilometres of strike.
Marmota’s work at Mainwood is the company’s first drilling campaign there since 2018 and its maiden programme in the zone.
The company’s aims include extending Greenewood to the north and at depth, filling gaps between Greenewood and Mainwood, and building a combined resource. It also plans to increase drilling density in areas with limited coverage to support an indicated resource estimate and a subsequent scoping study.
Greenewood and Mainwood form part of the Golden Moon joint venture, in which Marmota holds a 90 per cent interest. Their proximity to the company’s wholly owned Aurora Tank deposit could provide operational synergies, Marmota said.
Aurora Tank has produced high-grade intersections close to the surface and demonstrated strong metallurgical recoveries, with potential for a low-cost open-pit heap-leach operation.
Greenewood is about 30 kilometres north-east of Barton Gold’s historical Challenger mine and 35 kilometres north-west of Aurora Tank. Marmota said the discovery was notable because it did not display the surface gold-in-calcrete anomaly associated with Challenger and other deposits along the region’s “Arc of Gold”.
The company believes that could indicate potential for discoveries missed by traditional sampling methods, including programmes relying solely on calcrete sampling.
The drilling is being carried out as Marmota advances a maiden scoping study for its wider Gawler gold project. The company is also operating against a strong gold-price backdrop, with the metal having reached a record A$7894 an ounce in January and remained above A$6000.
South Australia’s Plan for Accelerating Exploration minerals initiative is supporting early-stage exploration across the state, while other companies continue to target gold and copper-gold prospects in the Gawler Craton.
Marmota said the forthcoming assays from Greenewood and Mainwood would help determine how quickly the combined system can be developed into a larger gold resource.
