Strickland Metals will commence drilling at its Iriquois base metals project in WA’s Earaheedy Basin with a minimum of three diamond holes after the company developed a new geological model for the site.
The campaign will target the site’s currently untested “feeder structure” to the zinc-lead mineralisation that the company believes could be enriched with silver and copper. Strickland’s latest modelling for the system suggests the potential for a much larger copper-zinc-silver-lead mineralisation than previously estimated.
The latest drill campaign will be conducted alongside a subsequent seismic survey aiming to provide information to target additional feeder structures within Iriquois. The planned drilling forms part of an initial pre-IPO program after the company announced its intentions to demerger the operation from Strickland late last year.
The proposed spin-out will see the company’s Iroquois zinc-lead and Bryah Basin assets packaged into a new wholly-owned subsidiary that will seek to list on the ASX in early 2023.
Whilst the deal still requires shareholder, ASX and regulatory approval, Strickland believes the demerger will create a dedicated WA-focused base metals exploration company.
Strickland Metals Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Bray said: “We’re very excited to undertake initial drilling at Iroquois in preparation for the demerger IPO in Q2 2023. At the conclusion of Strickland’s 2022 drilling campaign, the Company began working on the Iroquois project, developing a promising new geological model for the mineralisation.”
The three diamond drillholes will cover a strike of 600 metres and are planned to target both up-dip extensions of the mineralisation in addition to the Iroquois feeder structure. The first hole will investigate an area around 100m south-east of previous drilling where the company recorded 8m at 5.2 per cent zinc from 95m and 5m going 10.1per cent zinc and lead from 110m.
The second hole will target an area 100m south-east of solid results including 12m grading 5.4 per cent combined zinc and lead from 58m whilst the third hole has been designed to test an offset in the interpreted Iroquois feeder structure to the north.
Previous drilling at Iriquois has been constrained by a lack of heritage clearance, however the appropriate approvals were received in January and allow the company to test its main target at the operation.
Currently, the main focus of Strickland’s attention has been to pursue additional ounces at the company’s flagship Millrose gold project within its broader Yandal tenement package 85km north-east of Wiluna in WA.
Whilst the broader region is renowned for gold, in 2021 the explorer made the zinc and lead discovery at Iroquois – directly along strike from ASX-listed Rumble Resources’ world-class Earaheedy project. Previous drilling by Rumble within the broader system threw up some incredible figures including a 40cm hit at a massive 4450 g/t silver, 3.37 per cent copper, 2.5 per cent zinc and 0.3 per cent nickel from 115.3m.
With the drilling of the three diamond drill holes set to commence this week, the market will be interested to see what Strickland can uncover at Iriquois now that it has heritage clearance and rigs on site.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
