Strickland Metals says it has stretched its Marwari gold discovery by 400m to establish a total strike length of 1.1km following a systematic drilling campaign within its Yandal East project in Western Australia.
And the company says its geophysical modelling has identified a further six promising “lookalike” targets in close proximity to the Marwari and Chetak deposits – which are part of its Horse Well play – in the State’s Western Desert.
An expansive air-core (AC) program designed to identify further potential mineralisation across Horse Well and the wider project area is now continuing after recent drilling led to the Marwari gold discovery of 31m at 5.6 grams per tonne gold from 72m to the bottom of the hole.
The step-out drilling conducted 400m south of Marwari intersected similar alteration, veining and sulphides. Results included 10m at 1.5g/t gold from 92m to end-of-hole, with the last 2m returning 1m at 2.5g/t and 1m at 3.2g/t, respectively.
Intersections of 4m at 5.1g/t gold from 60m and 64m at 0.3g/t from 16m, including 8m at 1g/t, were other notable results. The company says significant gold mineralisation has been intersected in the regolith at Marwari.
Strickland Metals chief executive officer Andrew Bray said: “After significant drilling in recent weeks at the Marwari and Chetak prospect areas, the Company is now looking forward to drilling its two other high priority targets at Great Western and Rabbit Well. Both targets represent large-scale potential discoveries. Strickland is particularly pleased it has been able to adhere to its initially communicated schedule with both targets to be subject to initial drilling prior to the Christmas break.”
Bray also said the company expected assays from initial diamond and reverse-circulation (RC) drilling, in addition to further AC results, to soon be returned. The AC program has been further expanded to include several regional targets and is now expected to conclude mid-next month.
Strickland says drilling remains ongoing with multiple rigs on site and RC drilling is expected to begin next week at its Great Western prospect, in addition to initial diamond drilling at Rabbit Well – the company’s highly-prospective zinc and base metal target.
Management is also completing other ongoing regional AC drilling, including 68 holes at its Dusk til Dawn gold prospect and 36 holes at Celia South. It has completed two 800m, east-west traverses at its Falconbridge nickel-copper prospect in a bid to better understand the geology.
And if the company does not already have enough substantial targets on its hands, magnetic inversion modelling by Terra Resources outlined a coherent and substantial magnetic anomaly comprising about 700m in strike length. Modelling based on the total magnetic intensity (TMI) dataset has defined several high-priority targets in proximity to both Marwari and Chetak that are currently untested.
Two of the targets, which already have heritage clearance, will be subject to initial AC traverses in the coming week. The other targets are planned to be included in a heritage survey early next year.
Strickland remains extremely well-funded after selling the Millrose gold deposit to Northern Star for about $61 million in July. Its shares have also surged in recent months, making it one of the top-performing gold stocks on the market this year.
After beginning the year at about 4 cents, its stock touched as high as 20c last week.
With a multitude of targets that would make any junior mining company envious, market punters will be hoping the drilling results expected soon will keep the good times rolling.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Craig Nolan
