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Craig Nolan
Aspiring gold developer Aureka Limited has unveiled further high-grade gold hits from recent drilling at the company’s flagship Irvine project, located within the renowned Stawell gold corridor in Western Victoria.
The junior goldie, which holds a portfolio of exploration projects in the historic gold-rich state of Victoria, intercepted an impressive18.4 metre interval grading 1.54 grams per tonne (g/t) from a depth of 425.8m.
Significantly, the wide mineralised hit included two high-grade slices of the lustrous yellow metal, returning 0.75m at 10.2g/t gold from 427.5m and a 1.15m hit going a solid 9.73g/t gold from 434m.
‘It is great to start the year with further high-grade results outside the current JORC Resource.’
Aureka Limited managing director James Gurry
The company says the high-grade intercepts reinforce its geological interpretation of the mineralisation at the site and confirm the prospectivity of the Tenacity hanging wall fault, host to previous eye-opening gold hits reported last year.
Aureka believes the latest drill result, following on from a 10m stretch grading 12.1g/t from 413m and a chunky 0.38m slice assaying at 85.8g/t from 492m, has the potential to expand the existing 304,000-ounce JORC resource at the project.
The results were further boosted by visible gold intersected in December that ultimately returned a 0.7m hit at 13.9g/t from 345.3m and a high-grade 0.3m slice going 25.2g/t from 409.25m.
Aureka Limited managing director James Gurry said: “After nearly 7000m of diamond drilling across the portfolio in 2025, and most of it focused on the Irvine project, it is great to start the year with further high-grade results outside the current JORC Resource.”
Gurry said its Resolution mineralised lode at Irvine has the potential to be amenable to mining, with the latest results extending the lode to a depth greater than 400m, which notably begins from surface.
The Irvine project, estimated by Aureka to have had more than $13 million plunged into it since discovery, sits 16 kilometres south of the operating underground Stawell gold mine, known for pumping out more than five million ounces of the precious metal.
The Stawell gold mine is a quartz-reef deposit with a history of long-term gold extraction. Its Mariners lode alone has been responsible for producing about one million ounces at an eye-watering 30g/t of gold.
At Irvine, a mineral resource has already been tabled of 1.754 million tonnes at 2.09g/t gold for 118,000 ounces at the Resolution open-pit. A further 1.455 million tonnes going 3.12g/t gold for a solid 146,000 ounces is also lurking at the Resolution underground prospect.
An additional 40,300 ounces from the Adventure open-pit deposit tops up the Irvine resource to a healthy 304,300 ounces, a resource size that might attract the attention of cashed-up local producers in today’s sky-high gold price environment.
The 18.4m broad gold-laced new drill interval occurs within a zone of prominent faulting and shearing, with both large styolitic and vuggy quartz, along with elevated pyrrhotite, pyrite and arsenopyrite comprising disseminated mineralised halos surrounding the quartz veins.
The Irvine mineralisation is associated with a package of steeply west dipping sheared basalt and meta-sediments offset 50-80m from the eastern flank of a Cambrian basalt dome, known as the Irvine dome.
Gold occurs on or adjacent to the shear zone, typically on the basalt/meta-sediment contacts.
Aureka recently encountered a new mineralised structure containing striking visible gold next to the company’s existing resource at its Comstock project, 125 kilometres north-northwest of Ballarat in Victoria.
A remarkable array of visible gold grains were observed in drilling in a laminated quartz vein from a depth of 127.6 metres. The new find has unveiled a potentially whole new structure for the company, giving it several options for near-surface drill targets, coupled with possible game-changing outcomes if the drilling extends along strike and further down-dip.
Further exploration could define a significant new mineralised structure for Aureka as the ground has not been previously identified or worked, highlighting the potential for a considerable discovery at depth.
Last year, the company posted a maiden inferred resource at Comstock of 1.45 million tonnes grading 1.21g/t gold and 2.14g/t silver for 56,500 ounces of gold and 100,000 ounces of silver.
Aureka appears to be hitting its straps now at both Irvine and Comstock. With the gold price also motoring ahead, driving up more than 68 per cent over the past year to $6850 Aussie dollars per ounce, its timing is starting to look spot on.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
