Strickland Metals has kicked off two 3D induced-polarisation (IP) surveys at its priority Rabbit Well and Iroquois base metals prospects in Western Australia’s Earaheedy Basin – an emerging metallogenic terrane believed to have tier-one base metal potential.
The company says both prospects exhibit coincident geophysical and surface geochemical anomalies and are geologically well-situated for the mineralisation styles it is chasing. The surveys at the prospects, about 200km east of the WA town of Wiluna, are being conducted by Moombarriga Geoscience and are scheduled to take up to three weeks to complete.
They are designed to map chargeability variation across both prospects in a bid to identify areas of high chargeability, which the company says is a key characteristic of the massive sulphide mineralisation it intersected in a diamond hole at Iroquois in May. The hole intersected impressive high-grade zinc, with 58m assaying 4.3 per cent zinc and 3.7 grams per tonne silver from 173m, including 11.1m going 6.7 per cent zinc and 7.4g/t silver from 176m and 4.3m running 27 per cent zinc, 0.1 per cent lead and 19.9g/t silver from 226.7m.
Management says the diamond hole is one of two that successfully intersected what it interpreted to be related to a basement “feeder” structure. It also points out that it is cashed up to get stuck into its work after selling its Millrose gold project to Northern Star Resources in July for about $61million.
Strickand Metals chief executive officer Andrew Bray said: “The survey results will feed into drill planning, with a diamond rig expected to arrive in October. In addition to Rabbit Well and Earaheedy, the drilling will also focus on the large-scale gold target at Great Western and the Horse Well gold project. Given the number of highly promising targets we’re drilling before the end of 2023, and our exceedingly strong balance sheet, shareholders potentially have a very exciting finish to the year coming up.”
IP is a geophysical imaging technique that is widely used for mineral exploration to identify the electrical chargeability of subsurface materials. It makes it possible to estimate not only the resistivity distribution, but also the chargeability distribution of sub-surface rock types and mineralisation remotely using surface electromagnetic (EM) data.
The method is extensively and effectively used in base metals mineral exploration for locating low-grade ore deposits such as disseminated sulphides, but it also has other applications in hydro-geophysical surveys, environmental investigations and geotechnical engineering projects.
As the name implies, two-dimensional IP (2D IP) survey results are normally represented in a 2D horizontal plane at surface. While it is suitable in many cases, detailed subsurface mapping in complicated geology requires 3D data acquisition and processing.
The relatively recent availability of robust 3D IP codes, faster high-volume data processing and the ability to deal with arbitrary electrode configurations, has revolutionised the design of IP surveys.
Management says the results of its surveys will complement planning for proposed diamond drilling, with a drill rig expected to arrive at the project next month. The results will also help to refine drillhole collar locations for the planned follow-up diamond drilling and details of both are expected to be revealed in due course.
As noted previously, while at an early stage of exploration, Strickland appears to be well-placed in a “target-rich” environment as the Earaheedy Basin is increasingly appreciated as a metallogenic terrane of intriguing potential.
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By Doug Bright
