The company’s ambitions to hit that exploration target recently received a big boost after drilling in the area delivered outstanding high-grade intercepts, highlighting the potential for a small but very high-margin starter operation.
Standout results include one hole, which delivered 1m at a whopping 65.37g/t gold from 116.2m, including 0.3m parading an eye-watering 109g/t gold and 0.4m at 65.4g/t gold.
A second hole gave up 6.9m running at 4.24g/t gold from 422m, including 0.75m going 18.6g/t gold from 422.1m. The hole also intercepted a deeper 3.2m slice at 4.71g/t gold from 434m, including 0.6m grading 19.9g/t gold from 435.9m.
Those bonanza grades sit close to Aureka’s current inferred resource and strongly support management’s view that small-scale, high-grade mining can deliver robust early cash flow.
Adding to Aureka’s growing gold inventory, the company has continued to pursue an aggressive exploration strategy at its flagship Irvine Project near Stawell, 66km southwest of Comstock.
The Stawell project currently hosts 304,000 gold ounces grading 2.43g/t and Aureka hopes to further boost those numbers at the site, with an exploration target of between 280,000 and 420,000 ounces of gold within a grade range between 2 and 3g/t gold.
With gold currently above A$6300 per ounce and a proven high-grade starter pit only 45km from Core’s high-quality spare milling capacity, Aureka has positioned Comstock as one of the most credible near-term, small-scale production stories in Victoria.
The scoping outcome early next year will be closely watched and a positive result could see the company pouring its first gold well ahead of its peers in the strongly contested region.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
