After proving up and selling the Millrose gold project to Northern Star Minerals (ASX:NST) for a tidy $61m, intrepid gold explorer Strickland Metals (ASX:STK) is now looking to repeat this achievement with its Rogozna gold-copper project in Serbia.
The latest drill result certainly indicates that the company is on the right track with the second diamond hole it drilled at the Shanac deposit returning a massive 308.4m intersection grading 0.7g/t gold, 0.2% copper, 1% zinc, 0.5% lead and 6.6g/t silver (1.9g/t AuEq) from a down-hole depth of 299.4m in hole ZRSD24150. Importantly, this broad intercept contains multiple zones of high-grade gold and base metals mineralisation.
It noted that the result validates its updated geological model and highlights the potential of the Central Domain to host extensive higher-grade mineralisation.
Shanac is one of four skarn-hosted gold and base metals deposits contained within the 5.4Moz AuEq Rogozna project.
“These latest results from ongoing drilling at the 4.6Moz AuEq Shanac deposit provide further support of our strategy to target the higher-grade mineralisation zones within the Central Domain of the deposit,” managing director Paul L’Herpiniere said.
“This hole was drilled ~100m along strike to the southeast of ZRSD24149 and was targeting the body of copper-gold-magnetite skarn that was also encountered in the earlier hole.
“With a 90.9m intercept of copper-gold mineralisation grading 1.4g/t Au and 0.3% Cu from 333.7m downhole, the copper-gold-magnetite skarn is demonstrating excellent consistency of grade and thickness at the southern end of the deposit.
“Of further significance in this hole was a thick zone of high-grade epithermal gold-zinc-lead-silver mineralisation intercepted at a downhole depth of 482.9m. This mineralisation is hosted within hydrothermal breccia, occurring adjacent to the mineralisation-controlling central dyke at depth.”
STK had acquired the 184km2 Rogozna project for $37m in April this year in a primarily escrowed scrip deal, a real bargain given that it came with $60m worth of historical exploration spending, a defined resource, and walk-up targets defined by previous exploration.
The company wasted no time launching an aggressive 60,000m drill program in June, which will consist of 35,000m of resource definition drilling focused on the Shanac and Copper Canyon deposits along with the Medenovac and Gradina prospects, and 25,000m of discovery-focused drilling to test the extensive pipeline of exploration targets.
Drilling at the Medenovac prospect has already delivered multiple, thick zones of gold, copper, zinc and silver with hole ZRSD24148 returning 128.5m at 1.4g/t AuEq from 298m while ZRSD24147 struck 63.4m at 1.3g/t AuEq about 150m to the northwest of the discovery zone.
L’Herpiniere said the company has started drilling a follow-up hole to ZRSD24149 that targets an extension to the newly identified gold skarn, which returned a spectacular intersection of 89.4m at 4g/t gold from 244.5m.
STK currently has six rigs drilling across its Rogozna project in Serbia and the Yandal project in Western Australia.
Assays are pending for multiple holes at both projects.
The company also remains very well-funded with $ 48.7m in cash and NST shares as at the end of the June quarter.
