Strickland Metals has punched out more good drill hits at its Horse Well gold project near Wiluna in central Western Australia. The latest assays have increased the strike length by 260m to more than 1.6km at the Marwari prospect while at the Bronco prospect, two new high-grade zones have been unearthed. The prospect remains open to the north of the latest hit.
At Marwari, the best two reverse circulation (RC) holes assayed were 12m grading 5.4g/t from 108m, including 4m running 8g/t and a strike extension hole - 260m north of known mineralisation - that threw up 28m going 1g/t from 16m including 4m at 3.8g/t.
Management has previously referenced its confidence that a potentially big gold deposit may be emerging at the Hore Well project because of the interconnected nature of the ore-controlling structures along the Horse Well antiform axis, which stretches for more than 4km.
The Marwari gold deposit was originally found 15 months ago after aircore drilling made a discovery hit of 31m grading 5.6 grams per tonne (g/t) from 72m. Since then, extensive reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling has peppered the prospect to define the steeply-dipping but gently plunging deposit with more than 1.6km of strike.
One kilometre to the west of Marwari is Bronco. Drilling at that prospect has been focused on defining the extent of high-grade plunging lenses, similar to the ones at the Warmblood and Palomino prospects within the same Horse Well project.
One 18.5m diamond drill intersection at Bronco came in at 1.7g/t gold from 81m including a 3.2m slice at 8g/t gold and 62.3m going at 0.9g/t gold from 114m. Bronco has strengthened its claim as a promising bulk-tonnage target sitting below a remarkably high-grade 50m oxidised zone. The recent drilling has also confirmed the orebody remains open at depth and along strike.
Additional RC hits in the Konik shear zone to the east such as 16m running at 1.2g/t gold from 146m have also heightened the company’s confidence that it has extended the mineralised strike a further 100m northwest of the original Konik discovery hole.
Strickland Metals managing director Paul L'Herpiniere said: “These latest assays from our 2024 drilling campaign continue to build the picture of a camp-scale gold system with exciting growth potential at Horse Well. Step-out drilling continues to intersect significant gold mineralisation at both the Bronco and Marwari deposits, with our new interpretation of the orientation of the mineralised lodes helping to refine our drilling approach.”
Combined with the recently revealed strong results from the Warmblood and Palomino deposits, the company is becoming increasing confident of the standalone prospects of Horse Well. By studying the combined effects of deep weathering and historically shallow drilling, the deeper drillholes have now started to reveal the magnitude of the area, which until recently has been largely concealed.
Strickland has completed around 20,000m of RC and diamond drilling at Horse Well for 2024 and has now sent the rig home with a view to studying the outcomes and potentially upgrading the resource.
A new 20,000m drilling program is now also being planned for 2025 at Horse Well which will use the data from this year’s program as a guide for the drill bits.
With outstanding drilling success at the company’s 4.6 million-ounce gold equivalent Shanac deposit at Rogozna in Serbia continuing to flow in and a strong build up in confidence at Horse Well, Strickland appears to have timed its exploration and discovery run to near perfection – particularly with the Australian gold price now smashing its way through AU$4000 per ounce. It is currently trading at US$2739 per ounce (AU$4096).
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By James Pearson
