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Brought to you by Bulls N’ Bears
Doug Bright
Aureka Limited has delivered fresh high-grade gold and a standout silver intercept from its 2025 diamond drilling at its Comstock project in St Arnaud, 200 kilometres northwest of Melbourne in central western Victoria.
Key recent assays from a diamond drillhole included 0.3 metres assaying 650 grams per tonne (g/t) silver and 1.91g/t gold from 192m, the project’s highest silver grade to date. A second hole hauled in 0.42m going 8.5g/t gold and 22g/t silver from 186.4m.
The St Arnaud goldfield, originally named New Bendigo, was first discovered in 1855. It is a historic mining area, known for both alluvial and quartz reef mining and producing, in that time, over 11,970kg of gold at a handsome average grade of 15 grams per tonne, with added silver credits.
The Comstock mine sits 2km north of the historic town of St Arnaud, within the greater St Arnaud goldfield. Last mined in 1995, it features a prominent open-cut mine along the Nelson line of reef, characterised by quartz-hosted gold in a shear zone.
‘This growth is taking shape at a time when the Company is actively progressing commercialisation options for Comstock.’
Aureka Limited managing director James Gurry
This silver-rich zone is hosted in a bedding-parallel quartz vein within massive sandstone, sitting in the footwall of a newly interpreted Comstock basal fault. The structure has never been drilled and can be traced towards surface, north of the open pit.
A previous diamond hole, logged and reported late last year, intersected 0.3m at 31.5g/t gold – an impressive one ounce to the tonne – from 127.5m depth, associated with visible gold.
That hit sits 140m west of the Comstock fault, suggesting the presence of a new sub-parallel mineralised structure beyond the company’s current gold resource.
The company’s recent intercepts have built on its 2025 highlights, including a diamond drill hit of 1m grading a solid 65.37g/t gold, featuring a 0.3m sweetener at a whopping 109g/t, north of the pit.
Another deeper diamond hole nailed 6.9m going 4.24g/t gold from 422m, including 0.75m at 18.6 g/t gold from 422.1m and 0.6m at 19.9g/t gold from 435.9m.
Aureka Limited managing director James Gurry said: “It is great to see the St Arnaud Comstock growing on multiple fronts, to the north as reported in November, to the west as reported in December and now growing in metal diversity with high grade silver intercepts.”
The company says geological updates have now confirmed the along-strike and down-dip continuity of the west-dipping Comstock Shear north of the pit, with the basal fault showing distinct alteration and veining.
Footwall drill intercepts hint at depth potential for more high-grade shoots, with the gold lining up with the district’s bedding-parallel quartz lodes, often linked to carbonaceous shales and a gold-silver-lead base metal signature.
Encouragingly, all of the results fall outside Aureka’s June 2025 maiden JORC-compliant inferred resource of 1.45 million tonnes at 1.21g/t gold for 56,500 ounces of gold.
Moreover, the results lie within Aureka’s defined Exploration Target of between 3.0 and 3.5 million tonnes grading between 1 and 1.2g/t gold for 112,000 to 116,000 ounces of gold, with silver credits.
From a development perspective and with continuing strong gold prices, the timing of the latest results could hardly be better. Comstock is a past-producing open pit with established access and sits within trucking distance of several operating gold mills in Victoria.
With an eye on getting its high-grade Comstock show up and running and generating revenue, Aureka has engaged small-scale Victorian gold production specialists Core Prospecting to de-risk a quick pathway to first production.
The latest hits further reinforce Comstock’s upside for resource growth close to existing infrastructure and near-term economic potential via new prospective structures.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
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