Marmota Expands Greenewood Gold Drill Program 55% to 31,000m as Assays Near
Key Takeaways
- Marmota has expanded its Stage 3 RC drilling program at Greenewood from ~26,000m to ~31,000m across 320 planned holes, with completion expected around 17 September 2026 — roughly two weeks from the announcement date.
- The program has grown 55% from its original 220-hole, ~20,000m design across two expansions, with average hole depth increasing to 97m as the company drills deeper into the system.
- 179 of the 284 holes drilled to date target the Mainwood zone — representing maiden systematic RC drilling at a zone that had seen only ~3,700m across 53 holes since 2018.
- An Indicated Resource is a prerequisite for the maiden scoping study, and the expanded infill drilling density directly serves that requirement, making assay results the next material catalyst.
- Greenewood has no surface gold-in-calcrete anomaly, meaning it would have been missed by conventional discovery methods — a fact that opens entirely new search space within the broader Arc of Gold project area.
Greenewood drilling program expanded to 31,000m as Mainwood zone takes shape
Marmota Limited (ASX: MEU) has expanded its Stage 3 RC drilling program at the Greenewood gold discovery from approximately 26,000m to approximately 31,000m across 320 planned holes, with completion expected around 17 September 2026. That milestone is roughly two weeks from the announcement date, with samples already in transit to the laboratory and assay results imminent. The pace of the program has been striking: Marmota has completed over 50,000m of RC drilling at Greenewood in just 13 months.
At the time of the announcement, 284 holes had been drilled in total — 105 in the Greenewood zone and 179 in the Mainwood zone to the south. The average hole depth across the expanded program sits at 97m, up from 90m in the original design.
The table below tracks how the program has grown across three updates:
| Metric | Original | 4 Aug Update | 3 Sept Update |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planned metres | ~20,000m | ~26,000m | ~31,000m |
| Planned holes | 220 | 289 | 320 |
| Average depth (downhole) | 90m | 90m | 97m |
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Four objectives driving the expanded program
The expanded program is pursuing four stated objectives, with the bulk of the additional 5,000m targeted at the Mainwood zone — representing Marmota’s maiden drilling at Mainwood and the first drilling at the zone since 2018. Prior to this campaign, Mainwood had seen only approximately 3,700m of RC drilling across 53 holes averaging 70m in depth.
The decision to pursue maiden drilling at Mainwood was flagged at the 26,000m expansion stage, when the program was first extended to cover the southern zone that had not seen systematic RC work since 2018.
- Northern extensions and depth: Extend Greenewood further to the north-east — drilling has pushed so far in that direction that the project map has had to be redrawn to accommodate it.
- Southern extensions: Identify a contiguous high-grade gold zone through maiden drilling at Mainwood, Greenewood’s southern extension.
- Resource growth: Significantly grow the mineral resource across the combined Greenewood/Mainwood system.
- Drilling density: Increase hole density, including infill drilling of missing sections, to support an Indicated Resource — a prerequisite for the maiden scoping study.
Dr Colin Rose, Executive Chairman, Marmota Limited
“I am delighted with every aspect of our Greenewood program which has been yielding some of the best gold results in the Gawler Craton since the discovery of Challenger in 1995.”
“Stage 3 has just been further expanded. The program is almost complete and we are very much looking forwards to seeing the assay results!”
Understanding the Gawler Craton gold belt — and why Greenewood matters
To understand why this program expansion carries weight, it helps to know where Greenewood sits within Marmota’s broader project.
The Gawler Gold Project is built around what the company calls the “Arc of Gold” — a chain of gold deposits running along the flanks of a major Y-shaped gravity anomaly in the north-west Gawler Craton of South Australia. Marmota owns all of the unmined gold deposits along this arc, either at 100% or 90% interest. Moving broadly from east to west, the arc includes:
- Aurora Tank (100% MEU) — flagship deposit, multiple bonanza grades near surface, strong heap leach potential
- Golf Bore and Campfire Bore
- Greenewood/Mainwood (90% via Golden Moon JV)
- Challenger Mine (historical producer: over 1 million ounces of gold)
- Monsoon and Typhoon
Greenewood and Mainwood sit approximately 35km north-west of Aurora Tank and approximately 30km north-east of the Challenger Mine, a positioning that creates potential economies of scope and scale across the project. The maiden scoping study for the Gawler Gold Project commenced in November 2025 (ASX:MEU, 18 Nov 2025).
One aspect of the Greenewood discovery stands out as strategically significant. Most Arc of Gold deposits — including Challenger — were identified through traditional regional calcrete sampling. Greenewood has no surface gold-in-calcrete anomaly. That means it would have been missed entirely by the conventional discovery method, and its identification opens up entirely new search space within the project area where calcrete sampling is not a suitable exploration tool.
Marmota holds its 90% interest in the Golden Moon JV through its 100%-owned subsidiary, Half Moon Pty Ltd. Ministerial Consent for the JV was granted in June 2025.
The Golden Moon JV structure, through which Marmota holds its 90% interest in Greenewood and Mainwood via its wholly-owned subsidiary Half Moon Pty Ltd, was formalised with Ministerial Consent granted in June 2025, consolidating the company’s control over this portion of the Arc of Gold.
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What comes next — assays, resource growth, and the scoping study
Two near-term catalysts are now firmly in view for investors watching this story.
The first is assay results. Drilling was expected to wrap up around 17 September 2026, with samples already en route to the laboratory at the time of the announcement. The chairman noted that each prior stage of drilling has yielded outstanding gold grades, though outcomes of the current assays should not be assumed in advance.
The second is the scoping study pathway. An Indicated Resource is a prerequisite for the maiden scoping study, and the expanded drilling density — including infill holes — directly serves that requirement. Greenewood/Mainwood remains open in all directions, and the chairman’s statement confirms the growth thesis is intact on both the northern Greenewood front and the southern Mainwood extension.
The scale of program growth tells its own story. Moving from 220 holes and approximately 20,000m in the original design to 320 holes and approximately 31,000m across two expansions reflects a staged de-risking pathway that investors in junior gold explorers will recognise.
Ready to Follow the Greenewood/Mainwood Drilling Story as Assays Approach?
Marmota’s Stage 3 RC program has grown to 31,000m across 320 holes, with samples already en route to the laboratory and results imminent — making this a pivotal moment for the company’s Gawler Craton gold ambitions. The maiden drilling at Mainwood, combined with the push for an Indicated Resource to underpin the scoping study, sets up two near-term catalysts that could be material for the Aurora Tank-to-Challenger arc thesis.
Explore Marmota’s full project pipeline and the latest developments across the Arc of Gold by visiting the Marmota investor profile on Discovery Alert to stay across assay results and resource updates as they emerge.