Article by Craig Nolan, courtesy of The Age
24.03.2025
Aureka Limited has grabbed 97 hectares surrounding the company’s significant exploration ground at its flagship Irvine project in the Stawell gold corridor in Victoria.
The $2.2 million purchase gives Aureka unfettered site access and provides scope for potential infrastructure optionality. It also affirms the company’s confidence in the project, which contains 304,000 ounces of gold within the gold-rich Stawell region.
Management says the mortgageable land was purchased at market value and will not significantly affect a $4.9m cash balance recorded at the end of last year.
Accessing land containing valuable designated resources can be difficult in Victoria, given the need for exploration companies to negotiate access with local farmers and small landowners.
The process can cost a company significant time and money in access payments if it wishes to conduct an extensive drilling campaign.
Aureka’s purchase nearly overcomes the hurdle by offering permanent access as well as options for future mining infrastructure operations.
Management is already considering moving its core shed from its existing position 20 kilometres away to its new ground, which would save driving time and costs.
‘Acquiring these properties is an
important step in delivering a path to
production for the Irvine project…’
Aureka Limited managing director James Gurry
Aureka has three significant gold exploration projects underway in Victoria richly endowed historic goldfields – Irvine, Tandarra and St Arnaud – with a current total inferred resource of 304,000 ounces.
The company can now go full steam ahead in pursuit of its exploration target of 3.4 million tonnes to 5.2mt at its Resolution and Adventure prospects at Irvine, for 280,000 ounces to 420,000 ounces of gold grading at 2-3 grams per tonne (g/t).
The Irvine project is in Victoria’s Wimmera region, about 240km west northwest of Melbourne. The 304,000-ounce gold resource is grading at 2.4g/t, running from shallow depths to 400 metres.
Irvine’s targets remain open along strike and at depth. The company recently kicked off a diamond drilling program for 2000m at the Resolution lode, aiming to drill high-grade shoots to significantly expand and upgrade the resource.
Previous stellar gold hits at Irvine include 5m at 10g/t, a 9.4m slice going 5.3g/t and a 10.8m hit running at 4.5g/t.
Irvine sits 20km from the impressive Stawell gold mine’s 5m-ounce operation.
Aureka Limited managing director James Gurry said: “Acquiring these properties is an important step in delivering a path to production for the Irvine project as we continue to uncover its true potential, we are building off a strong base that already contains 304,000 ounces of gold plus an exploration target of 280,000 to 420,000 ounces.”
Aureka holds the Tandarra project, which is part of Victoria’s Bendigo gold zone that, in a joint venture with ASX-listed Catalyst Metals. Catalyst owns 51 per cent of the project and manages it.
Tandarra includes the promising Lawry and Upton Road prospects. The joint venture project sits along the Whitelaw gold corridor and the Tandarra fault, extending for 13km along the two faults. The Whitelaw corridor is considered a major structural control of gold mineralisation north of Bendigo.
Tandarra also sits 50km northwest of Agnico Eagle’s globally leading Fosterville gold operation and 40km north of the 22m-ounce Bendigo goldfields.
Fosterville’s underground mine is one of the richest gold mines globally. It produced 225,000 ounces of gold last year at a stunningly low cost of US$653 (A$1031) per ounce. With today’s gold price of more than US$3021 (A$4807), the mine is almost licensed to print money.
Catalyst has recently completed a seven-hole diamond drilling program at Tandarra and the samples are being prepared for assaying.
Aureka’s latest drilling program at Tandarra includes 1000m of diamond holes at the Lawry prospect to increase the project’s mineralised footprint.
The program stretches 100m north and south of a previous campaign, where multiple gold-mineralised zones were found to extend into fresh rock.
Previous gold results were stunning, with 12.9m grading 33.1g/t from 66.4m, including 0.5m at a whopping grade of 831g/t, and a 9m section running at 14.8g/t gold.
Tandarra has three main prospects – Tomorrow, Macnaughton and Lawry. Tomorrow is regarded as the most advanced prospect.
Notably, the Tandarra ground is adjacent to Catalyst’s Four Eagles gold project, which it holds in partnership with a subsidiary of Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting.
The gold grades at Four Eagles are eye-watering. It has a 163,000-ounce resource at 7.7g/t and 70,000 ounces at a super-grade of 26.2g/t.
Due to the previous gold hits at Tandarra and its proximity to the Four Eagles project and its high grades, Aureka management will be keenly awaiting the assay results from the latest drilling.
In what could be a further massive benefit for the project, Catalyst recently struck a deal with ASX-listed Kaiser Reef Ltd to sell its Henty gold mine in Tasmania. As part of the deal, it negotiated an option to acquire a 50 per cent interest in the Maldon processing facility, an operational 200,000-tonne-per-annum plant 100km south of the Four Eagles and Tandarra projects.
If there is sufficient mineable ore at Tandarra, Aureka potentially has a place to process ore to take advantage of the current red-hot gold price environment.
Management says more than $7m has been spent on exploration at Tandarra. If the assays from recent drilling point to high gold grades, it may prove to be money well spent.
