Marmota serves up new SA gold discovery at Goolagong

Hot on the heels of its recent Aurora Tank gold find, Marmota has declared yet another discovery in South Australia, after a reverse-circulation (RC) drilling program at its Goolagong project returned significant intersections of the precious yellow metal.

And management believes its most recent find is even more noteworthy given its proximity to the Challenger gold mine, just 20km north-west of the deposit first discovered by Dominion Mining and which produced more than 1 million ounces of gold.

Marmota says it has confirmed a gold discovery at its Goolagong target in SA.

Marmota’s maiden RC drilling program at Goolagong on its 100 per cent-owned tenement named after Australian tennis icon Evonne Goolagong, intersected high-grade mineralisation in 11 of the 15 holes drilled. The results feature multiple intersections of more than 1 gram per tonne gold, which management now considers is highly likely to kick off a new regional gold discovery.

The RC drilling program, which was launched in July, was designed to follow up on a potential discovery hole drilled during an earlier 800m-by-200m air-core (AC) drilling campaign in April. That hole, which was drilled to 38m – the extent of the softer material from surface – identified a gold-in-calcrete anomaly in the final 2m at 0.64g/t and coincided with a previously-detected linear magnetic high.

‘We have only just scratched the surface at Goolagong with a tiny maiden RC program of just 15 holes.’

Marmota chairman Dr Colin Rose

The new RC drill campaign was then mapped out on a narrow 5m-by-3m grid around the AC discovery hole. And it is the results from those holes that have revealed multiple gold grades including 1m at 4.4g/t gold from 65m downhole, 1m at 2.8g/t from 77m and 1m at 1.4g/t gold from 50m.

Significantly, while the intersections are all in the harder rock below 38m, they are only between 50m and 70m in depth.

Management is particularly excited about the new discovery as the mineralisation appears to be getting closer to the surface toward the southern part of the prospect. It is also open in every direction and most probably extends into a neighbouring tenement on which Marmota also owns 100 per cent of the gold rights.

Marmota chairman Dr Colin Rose said: “We have only just scratched the surface at Goolagong with a tiny maiden RC program of just 15 holes … and already seeing more than a 5-times increase in grade compared to the initial discovery AC hole.”

Further drilling and exploration have now been planned to better define the scale and potential source of the mineralisation.

Not content to rest on its laurels, Marmota is also pushing forward with exploration at its promising nearby Campfire Bore deposit, as well as peppering its 100 per cent-owned Aurora Tank gold discovery, 65km to the north-east, with 7692m of RC drilling across 90 holes.

Marmota discovered the Aurora Tank gold deposit more than five years ago and has been yielding multiple bonanza intersections showing more than 100g/t in 1m intervals close to surface. The project is now at an advanced stage.

Armed with the significant results, Marmota’s current program was designed to define the extent of what it considers to be five distinct zones with abundant high-grade gold especially close to the surface. With metallurgical testing now 85 per cent complete and the results of the drilling campaign due shortly, the company seems to be making all the right noises, pointing to a new high-grade mine.

The Goolagong discovery adds yet another layer of anticipation to Marmota’s growing portfolio as it continues to unlock the potential of SA’s underexplored Gawler Craton region for gold and uranium. It now remains to be seen what the company can produce next as it pushes forward with its exploration program and further defines the extent of the new gold system.

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