The company says the high-grade gold is also accompanied by favourable metallurgy, for which studies into optimising gold recoveries are expected shortly.

Marmota Chairman Dr Colin Rose said: “Everything is coming together for Aurora Tank: high-grade intersections, predominantly close to surface, with excellent metallurgy, making Aurora Tank amenable to low-cost low capex open-pit heap leach methods. The metallurgical testwork is about to complete – and as soon as that is done, we progress to resource work, open-pit design and PFS … all underpinned by surging gold fundamentals.”

Marmota is also busy ramping up its first-ever drilling campaign at its shallow Campfire Bore gold discovery 30km to the east of Aurora Tank. The company’s maiden campaign at Campfire Bore has now been expanded to more than 20,000m of drilling, with the first phase of reverse circulation (RC) results expected in next month.

Management says Campfire Bore has “enormous potential to grow” having experienced minimal drilling of only near-surface gold, with just 10,000m of drilling to date exposing some 109,000 ounces of gold at the deposit.

The company will now move to flesh-out the emerging Campfire Bore with its belief the deposit could quickly rival the high-grade results at Aurora Tank.

With so much gold so close to surface exhibiting such stellar grades, Marmota will be spoilt for choice in how it ultimately monetises Aurora Tank but one thing seems certain – it will likely do so soon.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au