Aircore drilling by mineral exploration company Strickland Metals has unearthed a hefty 1.3 kilometre long gold trend lying along strike to its multi-deposit Horse Well resource in Western Australia where about 129,000 ounces of contained gold have been defined. Stand out hits from the drilling include eight metres at 3.3 grams per tonne gold from 40m that also takes in a higher grade 4m interval going 6.3 g/t gold.
Other intercepts from the 14,000m aircore campaign include 12m at 2.0 g/t gold from 44m, 8m at 2.2 g/t gold from 28m and 4m at 1.5 g/t gold from 72m.
Strickland believes these latest drill results auger well for a potential boost to its resource base at Horse Well.
The drilling was designed to probe for extensions to the mineralised Celia Shear zone in areas where previously conducted magnetic and ground gravity surveys identified targets for drill testing.
According to the Perth-based explorer, the newly unveiled 1.3km long gold anomaly is entirely hosted within the Celia Shear zone and remains open to the north and at depth.
Curiously, Strickland says the style of mineralisation encountered in the drilling is geologically similar to its Millrose resource to the south where some six million tonnes grading 1.8 g/t gold for 346,000 ounces of contained metal have been defined.
Strickland Metals Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Bray said:“The aircore program achieved precisely what it was designed to do – identify gold targets of significant scale from which we can follow up with subsequent RC drilling. The 1.3km anomalous gold trend is, from a technical perspective, very significant in that it is hosted entirely within the Celia Shear structure itself (unlike much of the gold mineralisation on the Yandal Belt, which is hosted in secondary structures).
Importantly, this is the same host structure as Strickland’s existing Millrose Mineral Resource, which too is hosted within the shear zone, meaning that this gold trend represents a potential analogue to Millrose.
Overall, the number of large-scale targets we are continuing to develop regionally over our ~100km of strike demonstrates the fantastic potential the Company has to make multiple gold discoveries in 2022.”
Strickland now plans to launch an RC drilling program in 2022 seeking to reveal the source of mineralisation along the 1.3km gold trend and to follow-up on the new gold intercepts.
Separately, recent RC drilling at the company’s nearby Dusk til Dawn prospect, where 109,000 ounces of contained gold have been defined, returned some serious intercepts including 33m going 3.6 g/t gold.
Importantly, Strickland believes the ongoing RC campaign at Dusk til Dawn represents the first time the drill rig has been correctly orientated in targeting gold mineralisation at the prospect.
According to the company, correctly orientating the mineralised plunge could potentially lead to a material increase in both grade and tonnage of the existing resource at Dusk til Dawn.
A mineral resource update for Dusk til Dawn is anticipated early in the new year.
Strickland also plans to get the drill rods turning at Millrose in early 2022 as part of a maiden resource expansion program. The onslaught includes 30,000m of aircore drilling, 15,000m of RC drilling and 8,000m of diamond drilling in an effort that will keep both the drill crews and the labs busy well into the new year.
Millrose, Dusk til Dawn and Horse Well all lie at the company’s Yandal gold project taking in a touch under 2,000 square kilometres of ground.
With a veritable chocolate wheel of compelling gold targets set to be tested with the drill bit in the coming months, 2022 could be a transformational year for the ASX-listed Strickland as its gold hunt at Yandal continues to gather steam.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
