Mammoth Minerals is targeting an early Christmas present in the form of an initial resource at its recently acquired Excelsior gold-silver project in Nevada, where the first-ever diamond drilling program is now underway.

Excelsior previously produced 19,200oz at 41g/t gold from shallow workings at the Buster underground mine and drilling is set to follow up on previous tantalising intercepts including 6.1m at 16.3g/t from 42.7m, within 51.8m at 4g/t.

 

"It's full steam ahead," managing director and CEO Glenn Poole said.

"This drilling is designed to deliver a resource on the end of it and set the foundations for the future of the project."

The company decided to accelerate the diamond drilling program – replacing a planned RC rig with a second diamond rig – to better understand the mineralisation and processing pathways, with diamond core better suited to metallurgical testing.

Elsewhere at Excelsior, rock chip sampling from the former Blue Dick underground mine has assayed up to 6,630g/t silver.

Excelsior's dual appeal – aside from its location in a top-tier mining jurisdiction – lies in its scalability and high grades, Poole said.

"We think it's a large epithermal system, structurally enriched as well, so you've got two mineralising systems colliding which create this perfect storm of where Buster sits in terms of scale and grade," he said.

It's been a period of rapid progress for Mammoth, which changed its name from Firetail Resources in August to mark its new era as it acquired 80% of Excelsior Springs in Nevada and 100% of the Bella gold project in South Dakota.

Bella lies 20km from the former high-grade Homestake mine, which produced about 42 million ounces grading 8.4g/t gold.

Rock chip sampling at Bella has returned multiple samples of more than 100g/t gold and assays from drilling a pit wall sample at Bella's former Standby mine intercepted 12.2m at 46.62g/t, including 1.5m at 343g/t.

10Moz board

The experienced board behind Mammoth is committed to rapidly turning the company into a US gold-focused explorer-developer.

"The three geologists on the board have all made their careers on taking assets that people thought were dead and putting new life back into them and creating a lot of value," Poole said.

Simon Lawson recently led Spartan Resources to its A$2.4 billion takeover by Ramelius Resources, Rob Jewson was behind Bellevue Gold's revitalisation and Poole has been involved in the journey from discovery through to production with companies including Northern Star and Firefly Resources.

"Collectively, I think there's over 10 million ounces discovered and delivered from three of the board members," Poole said.

"And then we've got US fund manager, Kevin Puil, on the board as an industry veteran and giving us a strong face in North American capital markets."

Realising value

Mammoth is also looking to realise value from its non-core assets through potential sales, joint venture and spin-out opportunities.

Last month, it agreed to divest a 90% stake in its Paterson copper-gold project in Western Australia to London-listed Cloudbreak Discovery, in an all-scrip deal worth about A$3.1 million.

It's also deferred the consideration payable for the Skyline copper project in Canada, in agreement with vendor York Harbour Metals, as it reviews emerging options to monetise the asset.

"It's not often that both copper and gold run hot at the same time – and our asset base gives our shareholders exposure to both metals at the same time," Poole noted.

Mammoth remains on the hunt for potential tier-one porphyry targets at its Picha copper-gold project in Peru, boosted by a US$500,000 grant through BHP Xplor's 2025 accelerator program.

"We're still working through next steps but Peru certainly has scalability and the potential to deliver a genuinely Tier-1 sized discovery," Poole said.

In the near-term, Mammoth's value proposition lies in its laser focus on Excelsior.

"We're dealing with past producing assets that are already drill advanced and they're sitting within a team who's got a proven track record of delivering value," Poole said.