Strickland Metals has launched a 50,000-metre diamond drilling program, the biggest yet at its Rogozna gold and base metals project, in the giant Tethyan Metallogenic Belt in southern Serbia’s Raška district.
The campaign aims to expand the existing combined 6.69-million-ounce gold equivalent resource at Rogozna and, if possible, improve the grades and iron-out grade variation and spatial distribution in its resource models.
The Rogozna ground comprises the Shanac, Medenovac and Copper Canyon gold-copper deposits, the Gradina gold deposit and nine prospects.
Two rigs are already drilling at the company’s flagship high-grade, skarn-hosted Shanac inferred gold resource, which was identified last year.
Drilling at Shanac last year produced an 89.7m intercept going 4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 244.5m, including 24.1m at 10.5g/t gold from 296.2m. A second hole intercepted 40.9m running 4.0g/t gold from 241.6m, including 12m at 6.2g/t gold from 259.6m.
This year’s drilling program at Shanac is chasing extensions of the high-grade gold skarn. The company has slated a minimum of about 5000m of drilling to extend and/or infill the skarn mineralisation and further test mineralisation on the western side of the deposit’s central domain.
Last year’s drilling focussed on the eastern side of the central domain, compared to about 200m of strike on its western side being subject to only limited drilling.
The high-grade gold skarn is seen as a key part of the deposit, with work to date demonstrating it exhibits the highest gold grades and is the shallowest part of the deposit. As a result, the skarn would logically be a priority for further evaluation towards a future resource upgrade and early mining plan.
With drilling underway, Strickland expects to update Shanac’s current 4.63m-ounce gold equivalent resource estimate by the end of this month.
The company anticipates four more drill rigs will soon be available to test a string of targets and build sufficient data at its Gradina target, 1.9 kilometres south south-west of Shanac. Strickland hopes the additional drilling will support a maiden mineral resource estimate to be released towards the end of the year.
The new drilling program is the most extensive undertaken by Strickland and the biggest in Rogozna’s history and will provide a major boost to the project since the company acquired it about eight months ago.
Strickland Metals managing director Paul L’Herpiniere said: “The 2025 exploration program will be the largest ever conducted at the project, with a minimum of 50,000m of drilling designed to continue growing the substantial 6.69Moz AuEq resource base and test a multitude of exciting exploration targets across the project.”
During the company’s tenure it has significantly advanced Rogozna, chalking up some impressive wins including discovering the Shanac skarn gold resource and defining a maiden 1.28m-ounce gold equivalent resource at its Medenovac deposit.
Other notable achievements include the discovery of the Kotlovi orebody, 350m southwest of Medenovac, and defining up-dip extensions of high-grade mineralisation at Gradina. One drill hole at Gradina intersected 48.5m at 3.1g/t gold from 194.4m, including 25.5m at 5.2g/t gold from 216.5m.
The Rogozna project features important geology that gives rise to the significant gold and base metal mineralisation found at the deposit.
It sits in the western part of the 10,000km-long Tethyan Metallogenic Belt which comprises the Alpine-Balkan-Carpathian-Dinaride province of the Balkans, including Serbia.
The overall Tethyan or Alpine-Himalayan orogenic system extends from Morocco in northwest Africa, through western Europe to southern and South East Asia. The globally significant belt is one of the world’s longest metallogenic belts – and potentially its longest.
Rogozna lies squarely within the western part of the metallogenic belt which is globally recognized for its large porphyry-related deposits. Its geological history and tectonic activity directly control the deposit’s mineralisation.
Elements of that tectonism have provided the necessary conditions for the formation of large-scale gold-copper porphyry systems, which are characteristic of this region and give rise to the deposit’s mineralisation.
As well as its latest drilling program, Strickland is advancing the Rogozna project by continuing metallurgical test work and is due to start an extensive program of baseline environmental studies in the coming weeks. All the developments are designed to support and deliver an initial mining scoping study by the end of the year.
Management sees 2025 as a pivotal year for the Rogozna project and a transformational one for the company.
Strickland remains well-funded to deliver Rogozna’s biggest-ever exploration program, with $33.8 million in cash and Northern Star shares as at the end of the December quarter.
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By Doug Bright
