Marmota (ASX:MEU) reports the presence of gold and rare earth elements (REE) mineralisation following a maiden reconnaissance reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign at its Comet (West) tenement in South Australia.
The results, generated by seven reconnaissance RC drillholes, represent the first drilling carried out by any company on the Comet tenement and have returned gold and elevated REE mineralisation.
Key intercepts include hole 22ADIRC017 with 4m @ 1.3g/t Au from 44m downhole, including 4m @ 808 TREO from 32m and; 4m @ 731ppm TREO from 20m, as well as 36m @ 408ppm TREO from 12m.
Speaking on the results, Marmota Chairman, Dr Colin Rose, commented: “This is a highly unusual, intriguing and exciting outcome for a recon program. To put this in context, the usual path to finding gold is to start with some surface expression of gold that then guides drilling. Here, by contrast, there is no expression of gold in the surface calcrete sampling.
“This is a highly unusual, intriguing and exciting outcome for a recon program”
Finding significant gold over 1g/t on a single hole in the middle of nowhere, without surface expressions or other guides…is probabilistically like finding a needle in a haystack. It is so unusual that prior to releasing these results, Marmota asked the laboratory to duplicate the assay tests from a fresh sample: the lab pulverised the entire 2kg sample bag collected over the 4m interval and took a new pulp to re-test from fresh. It confirmed the same result.
There is no doubt that there is significant gold in the sample. More intriguingly, it is located on the same trend line as the Aurora Tank gold discovery and the Mars gold deposit 10km to the north-east, with the ground on Comet in between never tested or drilled.
Marmota is seeking to carry out follow-up programs as a priority, both here at Comet, and to follow up the high-grade 18g/t gold extensions just discovered at Aurora Tank. More detail is expected to follow shortly.
The highly anomalous REE result and thick RE intersections in clays highlight the prospectivity of Marmota’s tenements for rare earth elements. Marmota will also be addressing our REE strategy in the near future.”
The company also notes that these results represent an extremely promising start for exploration at the Comet tenement, considering that there is no gold-in-calcrete anomaly at surface.
In addition, these results also support the potential for a new ‘significant’ gold discovery to be hosted within the Comet tenement.
The Comet Tenement is located south of Marmota’s Aurora Tank gold discovery and Mars deposit within the Woomera Prohibited Area of South Australia, which are part of the company’s Gawler Craton gold project and represents a dominant tenement holding in the highly prospective and ‘significantly’ underexplored Gawler Craton.
The project comprises a total land area of 6,000km-square and is within close proximity to the Challenger Gold Mine, which has historically produced in excess of 1 million ounces of gold.
With the maiden reconnaissance RC drilling campaign now complete, Marmota announces that it will move forward with carrying out follow-up priority drilling programs at its Comet and Aurora Tank Tenements.
Images: Marmota Ltd
