Marmota strikes gold with 107g/t hit at SA Campfire Bore project

Marmota Limited has hit another jackpot at its Campfire Bore gold prospect in South Australia, building on earlier impressive four-metre composite results it disclosed in December.

The company has released more detailed 1-metre split assays from the same holes at Campfire Bore, which is part of its Gawler Craton gold project, revealing even higher grades.

An overhead view of sample bags from recent drilling at Marmota’s Campfire Bore prospect in South Australia.

The latest results include a whopping bonanza 1m hit of more than 100 grams per tonne (g/t), five 1m hits of 20g/t or more and numerous 1m hits running higher than 10g/t.

Stage one of the drilling program comprised 86 reverse circulation (RC) holes for 11,690m at Campfire Bore. It was the first program to be conducted since 2018 and was designed to test widespread gold anomalism in calcrete across a defined 1.5 kilometres by 250m trend.

The company was also keen to test for mineralisation at depth since much of the previous drilling appears to have barely scratched the surface, having only reached down 20m or 30m.

‘We are delighted to already be finding bonanza grade gold over 100g/t in the first stage of our first drilling program at Campfire Bore.’

Marmota chairman Dr Colin Rose

The highlight of the program was a remarkable 107g/t gold hit at just 57m below the surface in a spot that had never been drilled before.

Marmota chairman Dr Colin Rose said: “Marmota is progressing a pipeline of gold deposits in the Gawler Craton, to follow on after Aurora Tank. We are delighted to already be finding bonanza grade gold over 100g/t in the first stage of our first drilling program at Campfire Bore.”

As a result of the latest numbers, the southern part of the Campfire Bore site has now been identified as a high-grade zone and earmarked as a priority for future exploration. the whole southern block close to surface now appears open when coupled with the discovery of thick intervals near the surface, particularly to the south and east.

The stage two Campfire Bore exploration program consisting of at least 79 RC holes is now in the pipeline. It will focus on deeper and more targeted drilling to follow up on the high-grade areas pinpointed from the latest drilling campaign.

The Campfire Bore discovery is part of Marmota’s Golden Moon joint venture (JV). Marmota holds a 90 per cent interest in the joint venture, via a 100 per cent-owned subsidiary Half Moon, with private company Coombedown Resources claiming the balance.

Under the terms of the JV, Coombedown remains free carried until a decision to mine, with Half Moon as the operator.

The Gold Moon JV spreads across four blocks and includes a current inferred and indicated resource of 286,000 ounces of the yellow metal split between the Mainwood, Greenewood and Golf Bore deposits.

Work has also been progressing at breakneck speed at Marmota’s flagship gold deposit, Aurora Tank.

The deposit was discovered more than two years ago after a drill bit snagged a string of high-grade gold results during follow up work on an early significant hit at 80m depth. The prospect has since received plenty of drilling attention.

After two further highly successful drill programs including uber high-grade hits of more than 100g/t and with the second program finishing just two months ago, management now appears convinced by the deposit’s credentials.

Marmota is crunching through the metallurgical work, finishing pit designs and preparing a maiden resource estimate as it moves as quickly as possible to a near-surface, low capex, open-pit gold mining scenario.

Since Campfire Bore sits just 25km to the northwest of Aurora Tank, any new discovery would fit nicely into the company’s plan to continue finding new sources of local mineralisation that it can add to the pipeline.

Management also believes that having two sites close to each other means it can apply useful knowledge gained from its Aurora Tank metallurgical studies to Campfire Bore. There are also likely to be further economies of scale benefits.

Given the minimal exploration until recently and the remarkable results so far, it’s perhaps not surprising the company believes there is still enormous potential to grow the size of the deposit at Campfire Bore.

Backed by a rampant gold price trading today at an all-time high of $4440 per ounce and a fast-growing inventory of the yellow metal, Marmota looks to be poised for a golden 2025.

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