Iroquois asset adds to Strickland portfolio

Strickland Metals’ second-string Iroquois project in the northern goldfields is continuing to jostle attention away from its better addressed Yandal greenstone belt Strickland stablemates, the Horse Well and Millrose projects. Iroquois has been throwing up some impressive zinc hits to back up last year’s initial discovery and it appears that Strickland now has yet another serious project on its books.

Whilst the Yandal projects have already booked 603,000 ounces across the two orebodies, initial first-pass drilling at Iroquois has yielded an exciting shallow, high-grade zinc-lead discovery.

The mineralisation looks to be substantial, with zones intersected 300 metres along strike and nearly 300 metres down dip.  The company says it has all the hallmark characteristics of a Mississippi Valley-Type zinc-lead deposit.  

It has the same tenor of mineralisation as Rumble Resources’ Earaheedy project zinc-lead discovery, which is directly along strike from Iroquois according to management.

Headline numbers for the latest assay results include 3m at 7.6 per cent zinc from 65m depth, within a broader 14m at 2.2 per cent zinc.

Another 10m intersection came in at 3.7 per cent zinc from 123m depth, and was contained within a broader 20m at 2.4 per cent zinc.

Strickland Metals Chief Executive officer Andrew Bray said of Iroquois: "These results demonstrate continuity of the previously intersected mineralisation. From previous mapping we’ve done on the ground, we can see repeats of the dolomite unit proximal to this mineralisation, so we are optimistic about the likelihood for repeats of further Zn-Pb mineralisation within the tenement package.”

“What’s most promising about the area is that these results are directly along strike from Rumble Resources Ltd’s very large Zn-Pb-Ag discoveries, demonstrating the exciting potential of what could be located within Strickland’s tenement tenure.”

Bray added that whilst the company’s focus is primarily on its gold projects in the Yandal greenstone belt, the Iroquois prospect is now a very exciting secondary project for Strickland to mature.

Strickland has the rods turning on three Yandal-based rigs too that are chasing more ounces at Millrose with 23,000 metres of RC drilling and 8,000m of diamond drilling planned to attack a number of extensional targets.

The Millrose gold deposit is on a major shear zone that extends another 30 kilometres south, giving Strickland bucket loads of blue-sky potential.

The drilling programme will feed into a planned mineral resource upgrade the company says is likely to comprise a significant addition to the current 630,000 ounce resource. After the resource upgrade, Strickland plans to look at a scoping study to get a handle on its potential economic impact.

Its always good to have options and fall-back positions in the mineral exploration game and Strickland has them in spades. Booked resources from two orebodies in a blue chip neighbourhood and an out-of-left-field discovery at Iroquois to chase will give the junior explorer plenty to go on with in the months ahead.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au