Strickland Metals (ASX: STK) is targeting the near-surface mineralisation at its Gradina prospect in Serbia in a bid to expand the company’s existing 5.4 million-ounce gold equivalent Rogozna project and drive its gold and base metal resource to next-level status.
Management has this morning confirmed that a new diamond drilling program for 10,000m has been launched at the site that sits in the landlocked Balkan nation.
Strickland has previously discovered high-grade gold at depth at its Gradina prospect and is now hunting for shallow mineralisation that sits above the recorded hits with the new round of drilling at its 100 per cent-owned Rogozna project.
The company says the high-grade gold that has been delineated across 1km of strike and at depths of between 200m and 1000m, is projected to begin near the surface, based on its geophysical and geochemical data compiled from previous surveys. It believes Gradina has the potential to stump up a significant maiden resource estimate in the near term due to the extent of mineralisation encountered at the prospect and now considers it a high-priority target.
Previous drilling through 21,000m has been conducted at Gradina, with several stellar high-grade hits including 27.5m at 5.1 grams per tonne gold from 439.8m, a 32m slice of 6.8g/t gold from 595m and 22m running 4g/t gold from 691m. Thick gold equivalent intersections previously recorded at the prospect include 228m at 1.4g/t from 488m and 113m going 2.3g/t from 435m.
The new shallow drilling has been made possible due to a recently-completed access track being carved through the site, enabling the near-surface testing for the first time. Management notes that it represents possibly the shallowest deposit at Rogozna, along with the outcropping Copper Canyon deposit.
All available datasets indicate that the steeply-dipping mineralised lodes encountered in previous drilling extend updip towards surface. If we are successful in drilling similar widths and tenor of mineralisation near-surface, we expect that this high-priority target will rapidly take shape and make a considerable contribution to the growth of the Rogozna Resource inventory over the next 12 months.
Strickland Metals Managing Director Paul L’Herpiniere
Gradina is one of four gold and base-metal deposits at the Rogozna project. It comprises multiple steeply-dipping, north/north-west-trending zones of gold with minor copper-zinc mineralisation across 1km of strike and remains open at depth, along strike and up-dip towards the surface.
Management says the mineralisation along strike consists of pathfinder geochemical anomalies in soils, in addition to several coincident geophysical anomalies that include gravity, induced-polarisation (IP) and remnant magnetic anomalies. It adds there is an absence of volcanic cover at the southern end of the prospect and its data points to the potential for mineralisation to extend close to surface within that area.
Interestingly, the Gradina ground is the most gold-dominant of the four identified deposits, with the precious yellow metal comprising about 90 per cent of the contained metal intersected. The thick downhole hits have typically been between 100m and 200m with 5m-to-20m high-grade zones, separated by quartz latite dykes and lower-grade zones with less than 0.5g/t gold.
The company says there are four rigs drilling at Rogozna across three deposits, with two exploration holes recently hammered into its Kotlovi prospect in a bid to see what it can uncover at that site.
Strickland recently unearthed further drilling success at its Medenovac deposit, with a hefty 50m intercept grading 5.6g/t gold equivalent – part of a whopping 365.8m hit at 2g/t gold equivalent. The stunningly thick hit confirmed a 60m extension to the south-east, taking the high-grade mineralisation to 150m at the southern end of the deposit and 600m in total.
The company is yet to report a maiden resource for Medenovac, however, it is scheduled to land early next year and management now appears to have another significant deposit on its hands within the overall Rogozna portfolio.
Strickland seems to find deposit after deposit at the 184-square-kilometre Serbian site and it appears now to be only a question of just how big the project will become.
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