Marmota Ltd Surpasses 20,000 Metres of Drilling at Greenewood Gold Discovery

Marmota Drills Past 20,000 Metres at Greenewood as Gold Discovery Keeps Growing

Marmota Ltd Greenewood gold drilling past 20,000 metres has reached a significant milestone, with the company (ASX: MEU) surpassing 20,000 metres of new reverse circulation drilling at its Greenewood gold discovery on the Gawler Craton in South Australia. This was confirmed via the company's ASX announcement dated 20 July 2026. The drilling has been completed since the 2026 program commenced on 20 April, marking one of the most intensive drilling efforts the company has undertaken to date.

With 188 new holes drilled across two target zones, and results described by the company as among the best seen in the Gawler Craton in decades, Marmota is building momentum toward a maiden scoping study for its broader Gawler Gold project.

A Discovery Reshaping the Resource Picture

Greenewood is not a new name on the Gawler Craton; however, it has become a materially different asset over the past 12 months. According to the announcement, the deposit had accumulated only approximately 7,000 metres of RC drilling across its entire discovery history prior to Marmota's maiden drilling program in July and August 2025. Marmota has now drilled nearly three times that total in under three months during 2026 alone.

That context is significant for investors assessing the pace of resource growth. In the last three months, Marmota reports it has drilled twice as many RC metres as were ever drilled cumulatively at Greenewood and Mainwood combined across all prior years of exploration.

The 2026 drilling program is split across two zones:

The scale of the current program dwarfs the historical drilling at both zones, and the campaign is still expanding. The original design called for approximately 220 holes, meaning the program is on track to meet or exceed that target. Furthermore, management has flagged that a further expansion is likely, with updated collar diagrams to be released once finalised.

What Is RC Drilling and Why Does It Matter?

Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling is a widely used exploration technique in which drill chips are brought to the surface through the inside of the drill rods using compressed air. The method is generally faster and more cost-effective than diamond drilling and provides reliable rock samples for geochemical analysis, making it well suited to rapid resource delineation at relatively shallow depths.

For investors, RC drilling represents the primary tool companies use to define the shape and grade of a gold deposit before committing to more expensive economic studies. The greater the number of RC metres drilled with consistent results, the clearer the picture of a deposit's likely size and grade, and consequently the more reliable any subsequent resource estimate becomes.

Key term: Indicated Resource — An Indicated Resource is a higher-confidence category of mineral resource where sufficient drilling density exists to reasonably assume continuity of grade and mineralisation. It is generally a necessary input for economic studies such as scoping studies.

Marmota's push past 20,000 metres in a single drilling season represents a substantial investment in building the data density the company says is required to support an Indicated Resource classification, a prerequisite it has identified for a credible scoping study.

Four Objectives Driving the 2026 Program

According to the announcement, Marmota's 2026 drilling program at Greenewood is structured around four specific objectives, each linked to the company's stated path toward a scoping study:

1. Northern extensions and depth — extending the Greenewood mineralised zone to the north and at depth. Drilling has reportedly already pushed so far to the north-east that it extends beyond the current planning maps.

2. Southern extensions (Mainwood) — identifying a contiguous high-grade gold zone in Greenewood's southern extension. This represents Marmota's maiden drilling program in the Mainwood zone and the first drilling there since 2018.

3. Resource growth — materially increasing the size of the overall mineral resource base.

4. Drill density for an Indicated Resource — increasing drilling density, including filling in gaps in existing coverage, to support classification of a portion of the resource as Indicated.

Marmota states the combined Greenewood/Mainwood system has the potential to extend the mineralised gold strike to 2 kilometres, should the southern extension deliver high-grade continuity consistent with the main zone.

Greenewood's Geological Significance in the Gawler Craton

One of the more notable aspects of the Greenewood discovery relates to how it was identified, and what that means for future exploration across the wider project area.

Most of the major gold discoveries along what Marmota refers to as the "Arc of Gold" within the Gawler Gold Project were identified through traditional regional calcrete sampling, a surface geochemical technique that detects gold anomalies in surface carbonate soils. This method was used to discover the Challenger Mine in 1995 and several other deposits along the arc.

Greenewood, however, does not have a surface expression of calcrete and therefore would not have been identified through conventional calcrete sampling methods. According to Marmota, this raises the possibility that further gold systems may exist across the project area in locations where standard surface sampling would return no signal.

"The discovery of Greenewood is thus an important milestone in the Gawler Gold discovery history as it identifies significant potential for further gold discoveries within the project area where traditional regional scale calcrete sampling is not a suitable tool to define a gold target and would have missed it."
— ASX announcement, 20 July 2026

The Arc of Gold: A Portfolio Built for Scale

Greenewood and Mainwood form part of a broader portfolio of gold deposits Marmota holds along the Gawler Craton's gravity anomaly, a regional structural feature the company describes as the "Arc of Gold."

According to the company, Marmota owns all of the unmined gold deposits across the Arc, either at 100% or 90% equity. Greenewood and Mainwood sit approximately 35 kilometres northwest of Aurora Tank and approximately 30 kilometres northeast of the Challenger Gold Mine, a proximity the company says creates economies of scope and scale for any future development scenario.

The Golden Moon JV structure, under which Marmota holds a 90% interest via its wholly owned subsidiary Half Moon Pty Ltd, received Ministerial Consent in June 2025.

Chairman's View: Resilience Amid Gold Price Volatility

Marmota's Executive Chairman, Dr Colin Rose, addressed the backdrop of recent gold price volatility in commentary accompanying the announcement, linking the company's deposit style to its capacity to manage fluctuating market conditions.

"Every one of those deposits that Marmota has drilled, whether at Aurora Tank, or Campfire Bore or Greenewood… has yielded bonanza gold grades, each featuring an unusually high-grade gold core surrounded by a halo of lower grade gold. This places Marmota in a most favourable position to be able to respond to any long-term fluctuations in the gold price: as the gold price goes up or down, we have the flexibility to either include or exclude some, or all of the halo of surrounding lower grade material."
— Dr Colin Rose, Executive Chairman, Marmota

Dr Rose noted that a deposit featuring a high-grade core is, in his view, structurally different from a predominantly low-grade deposit, typically defined as below 1 g/t gold, which does not offer the same operational flexibility. He also stated that recent gold price fluctuations have had no material impact on current operations and do not affect the assumed prices being used in the ongoing scoping study.

Milestones to Watch

The 2026 drilling program remains active, with several near-term developments that investors may wish to monitor:

• Program expansion: the original approximately 220-hole design is likely to be expanded, with updated collar diagrams to follow once finalised.
• Assay results: results from the 188 holes drilled since April are expected to be released progressively.
• Mainwood maiden results: the first systematic drilling campaign at Mainwood since 2018, with the potential to materially alter the understanding of the combined Greenewood/Mainwood system.
• Northern extensions: drilling has reportedly already extended beyond current planning maps to the north-east, suggesting the system may remain open in that direction.
• Maiden scoping study: commenced in November 2025 for the broader Gawler Gold project, with the current drilling program designed to support the Indicated Resource classification the company says is needed to underpin it.

Why Investors Are Watching Marmota

Several factors combine to make this a notable point in Marmota's exploration history. In particular, the Marmota Ltd Greenewood gold drilling past 20,000 metres achievement underscores a step-change in exploration intensity that warrants close attention:

• Scale of current activity: drilling more than 20,000 metres in under three months represents one of the most intensive programs the company has undertaken.
• Deposit characteristics: high grades close to surface, thick high-grade intersections and reported strike continuity — characteristics the company associates with potential open pit mining scenarios.
• Low historical drilling baseline: both Greenewood and Mainwood were drilled only lightly prior to Marmota's involvement, meaning each new program adds considerable incremental information relative to the existing dataset.
• Portfolio concentration: Marmota's ownership across the Arc of Gold means resource growth at any single deposit contributes to a wider, consolidated development opportunity.
• Aurora Tank metallurgy: metallurgical testwork reported on 28 April 2025 indicated strong recoveries, supporting the company's stated potential for low-cost, low-capex open pit heap leach gold production at its flagship deposit.
• Scoping study progress: the company is working to convert exploration results into an economic framework, a step toward defining potential development pathways.

Key takeaway — Marmota has surpassed 20,000 metres of new drilling at Greenewood in under three months, against a historical drilling baseline of just 10,700 metres across both Greenewood and Mainwood combined. With assay results expected progressively, maiden Mainwood results pending, and a scoping study underway for the broader Gawler Gold project, several near-term catalysts remain in view for the company's resource base.

Glossary of Key Terms

• RC drilling (Reverse Circulation): a drilling method that returns rock chips to the surface through the drill rods using compressed air; comparatively fast and cost-effective, and widely used in gold exploration.
• Indicated Resource: a mineral resource category with sufficient drill density to reasonably assume geological continuity; required for economic studies such as scoping studies.
• Inferred Resource: a lower-confidence resource category based on more limited drilling, generally considered less reliable for economic modelling.
• Bonanza grade: exceptionally high gold grades, well above average deposit grades, associated with high-value ore.
• Calcrete sampling: a geochemical exploration technique that detects gold anomalies in surface carbonate soils; effective in some settings but would not have detected Greenewood.
• Scoping study: a preliminary economic study assessing the potential viability of developing a mineral deposit, using resource estimates and assumed commodity prices.
• Heap leach: a lower-cost gold processing method in which crushed ore is stacked on lined pads and irrigated with a leach solution to extract gold, generally suited to near-surface, moderate-grade deposits.
• Strike length: the horizontal extent of a mineralised zone along its longest axis, a key measure of a deposit's potential scale.

Want to Know More About Marmota's Greenewood Gold Discovery?

With over 20,000 metres drilled in under three months, a maiden scoping study underway, and multiple near-term catalysts on the horizon, Marmota (ASX: MEU) is at a pivotal stage in its exploration journey across the Gawler Craton. To learn more about the company, its growing portfolio of gold deposits along the Arc of Gold, and the progress being made at Greenewood and beyond, visit marmota.com.au to stay up to date with the latest developments.