ASX-listed junior explorer Strickland Metals has launched an aircore drill campaign at the Horse North prospect at its Horse Well gold project on the north-eastern flank of the Yandal-Millrose greenstone belt in WA’s north-eastern Goldfields. The 10,000-metre drilling program will be focused largely on a three-kilometre section of the regional Celia shear zone.
Perth-based Strickland says the gold-bearing Celia shear zone is the same mineralised structure that hosts its existing combined inferred mineral resource for the nearby multi-deposit Horse prospect of just over 148,000 ounces of gold.
The Horse Well project area also takes in Strickland’s Dusk Til Dawn deposit.
Between them Dusk Til Dawn and Horse account for the overall inferred mineral resource estimate for the project of 5.72 million tonnes grading an average 1.4 grams per tonne for 257,000 ounces of contained gold.
Strickland also recently picked up the Millrose gold project – south-south-east of the Horse Well project – from Millrose Gold Mines and Golden Eagle Mining for $10 million in staged payments.
The project’s Millrose deposit, which also straddles the Celia shear zone and is located about 30km east of Northern Star Resources’ 10-million-ounce-plus Jundee gold operation, boasts an existing indicated and inferred mineral resource of 6 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.8 g/t for 346,000 ounces of contained gold.
On the back of the acquisition, Strickland’s overall gold resource inventory on the north-eastern flank of the Yandal-Millrose greenstone belt has been more than doubled to 603,000 ounces and its tenure in the Yandal region has swelled to almost 2,000 square kilometres.
The company is also gearing up for a reverse circulation rig to punch out 7,000m of drilling at Dusk Til Dawn.
According to Strickland, a recently completed gravity survey appears to have added credence to its reinterpretation that Dusk Til Dawn gold mineralisation plunges to the south-east and remains open.
The company says the prospect’s core alteration zone’s pyrite content has a close association with the mineralisation and generates a subtle gravity high feature at Dusk Til Dawn.
If its reinterpretation rings true, then Strickland suggests much of the earlier drilling undertaken at Dusk Til Dawn has been done at an oblique angle to the main plunge in mineralisation, which may mean Dusk Til Dawn has not been adequately investigated.
In the wake of the reinterpretation, the company says several regional look-alike gravity features occur along strike that display strong parallels to the Dusk Til Dawn gravity anomalies.
Strickland Metals Chief Executive Officer Andrew Bray said: “We are drilling some really exciting targets in the coming months. The Dusk Til Dawn drilling could be a complete game changer for the company, given the confidence around such a high-quality target. Also, several of the nearby regional look-alike targets appear to be very compelling and will also be tested.”
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