Marmota (ASX: MEU) has recorded bonanza exploration results during the June quarter, with world-class heavy mineral (HM) concentrations from its Muckanippie EL 6166 tenement and outstanding gold recoveries from its flagship Aurora Tank deposit.
Laboratory results from a February drilling campaign at Muckanippie delivered numerous intercepts starting close to surface over thick and wide intervals to confirm it as a major new discovery hosted in heavy mineral sands within an interpreted palaeochannel.
The mineralised zone has dramatically extended the discovery to the full 3.2 kilometre width of the tenement, with grades of over 20% recorded at the western and eastern boundaries.
Best assays were 37 metres at 45% HM concentrations from 2m including 5m at 56% HM, 34m at 19% HM from 4m including 1m at 50% HM and 30m at 20% HM from 0m including 2m at 43% HM.
Maximum downhole grades were reported to have more than doubled to 63% HM, with six holes returning over 40% and 14 holes returning over 30%.
While Marmota has not yet drilled the adjoining EL 6679 tenement to the west, it has recorded 100% leucoxene mineral assemblages in all tested historical samples.
The company said mineralisation already identified from drilling at EL 6166 plus the leucoxene result could potentially extend the Muckanippie discovery area to 9km in length.
During the quarter, Marmota also reported results of column leach metallurgical testing to test recoveries for a low-cost heap leach gold operation at Aurora Tank.
The work was designed and managed by heap leaching specialist Kappes Cassiday & Associates and carried out by Australian Minmet Metallurgical Laboratories.
It tested a range of Aurora Tank composite samples, distinguished primarily by different weathering profiles, crush sizes and leach durations.
The moderately-weathered master composite yielded a maximum gold extraction of 93% in 59 days of leaching at an 8 millimetre crush size, while the partially-weathered sample yielded a maximum 83% extraction in 87 days at 12.5mm, and 86% extraction at 8mm in an extended 159-day cycle.
Rapid leaching on all columns achieved over 55% extraction within the first 10 days.
The company said testing had been a “long but highly-beneficial process”.
In June, Marmota received ministerial consent for the 90% title transfers of EL 5998 and EL 6569 within the Golden Moon joint venture via its wholly-owned subsidiary Half Moon.
The Golden Moon tenements include four of the “Arc of Six” gold deposits along the flanks of a major Y-shaped gravity anomaly in the northwest Gawler Craton.
Marmota’s recently-acquired Greenewood gold deposit sits within the Arc and has been the subject of a maiden 127-hole reverse circulation campaign for a total 10,000m, which was recently expanded by 25% to 139 holes for 12,500m.
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