Strickland Metals is convinced it has one hand wrapped around the tail of a “significant-scale” mineralised system at its Rogozna gold and base metals project in Serbia after step-out drilling spat out a new suite of solid results.
And the company plans to quickly follow up the positive assays from its Medenovac prospect within Rogozna, with a 10,000m diamond drill campaign set to kick off this week. It is aiming to define a mineral resource estimate at the site by early next year.
The latest results from two drillholes at Medenovac delivered a solid 128.5m intercept grading 1.4 grams per tonne gold equivalent from 298m including 40.1m at 1.9g/t from 386.5m. The 128.5m hit is broken down to 0.3g/t gold, 0.1 per cent copper, 1.3 per cent zinc and 8.8g/t silver, while the 40.1m section contains 0.3g/t gold, 0.1 per cent copper, 2.5 per cent zinc and 4.8g/t silver.
Importantly, the assay was from a step-out hole down-dip from the operation’s “discovery zone” where a massive intersection of 352m at 2.1g/t gold equivalent included a high-grade section of 97m grading 5.1g/t from 321m.
The second hole was drilled about 150m north-west of the discovery zone and included a 63.4m hit at 1.3g/t gold equivalent from 244.2m including 14m grading 2.8g/t from 285.6m. A deeper section also contained solid results with 86m going 1g/t gold equivalent from 418m.
Strickland Metals chairman Anthony McClure said: “We are extremely pleased to return such positive numbers from our first results at Rogozna. Further drilling at Medenovac is underway, with ~10,000m planned to systematically test the prospective skarn volume and demonstrate the controls and geometry of the higher-grade zones of mineralisation in preparation for a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate.”
Rogozna holds a 5.4 million-ounce gold equivalent resource that consists of 2.96 million gold ounces, 214,000 tonnes of copper and 364,000 tonnes of zinc from just two of four drill-defined deposits. It is made up of four exploration licences covering some 184 square kilometres in an established mining region in the southern Raška District in the Republic of Serbia.
The site sits about 10km from the regional centre of Novi Pazar and 400km south of the capital, Belgrade.
Strickland has identified four prospects at Rogozna. The booked resource is spread across two prospects – Shanac and Copper Canyon - with further exploration potential in the Medenovac and Gradina prospects.
The Shanac resource was compiled last year by Matrix Resource Consultants in Perth and sits at 4.63 million ounces of gold equivalent. It includes 2.63 million ounces of gold, 130,000 tonnes of copper, 21.3 million ounces of silver, 260,000 tonnes of lead and 364,000 tonnes of zinc.
Drilling is continuing at Shanac with two rigs focused on the core of the deposit and another diamond drill set to arrive on site by the end of the month to test several copper-gold porphyry targets.
The resource at Copper Canyon was calculated by MPR Geological Consultants in Perth in 2021 and shows 28 million tonnes at 0.9g/t gold equivalent, with 0.4g/t gold and 0.3 per cent copper. It tallies 810,000 ounces of gold equivalent, broken down to 360,000 ounces of gold and 84,000 tonnes of copper metal.
In total, both deposits hold the 5.44 million ounces of gold equivalent – 2.99 million ounces of gold, 214,000 tonnes of copper, 21.3 million ounces of silver, 260,000 tonnes of lead and 364,000 tonnes of zinc.
With a healthy bank balance of $51.4 million in cash and Northern Star shares in its coffers following the sale of its Millrose project last year, Strickland appears to now be defining a significant mineralised system in Serbia.
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By Michael Philipps
