It feels a bit like Groundhog Day after Strickland Metals served up yet another massive drill hit from its Serbian copper-gold-zinc-lead-silver Medenovac prospect within the company’s Rogozna project. The latest drill campaign has thrown up a sizeable 223m intersection grading 1.7g/t gold equivalent from 179m including 43m at 4.6 g/t gold equivalent from 357m.
The high-grade mineralisation now strikes for 150m at Medenovac within a broader 600m zone of mineralisation.
On a relative basis, the company has judged the latest intersection to be the third best result from the 36 holes so far plunged into the prospect.
The latest step out diamond hole was drilled 60m to the southeast of the original Medenovac discovery hole which hit 352m at 2.1g/t gold equivalent from 240m including 97m grading 5.1g/t gold equivalent.
Notably, the prospect remains open along strike, down-dip and up-dip, providing plenty of exploration potential to grow the resource.
Strickland Metals managing director Paul L'Herpiniere said: “It’s exciting to receive further exceptional high-grade results from ongoing drilling at the Medenovac Prospect, where thick, high-grade mineralisation has now been delineated over a strike length of ~150m towards the southern end of the current 600m mineralisation footprint.”
L’Herpiniere went on to say the latest results also provide further proof of the orebody’s consistent thickness, geometry and tenor which is akin to several of the other nearby mines in the region such as the massive Trepca and the Vares mine in Bosnia.
The Trepca mine was once a vast base metal complex than included more than 40 mines. At its peak in the 1980’s the mine boasted 23,000 employees and was Europe’s biggest lead-zinc and silver producer accounting for 70 per cent of all Yugoslavia’s wealth.
The Vares project, owned by UK-listed Adriatic Metals and subject to a solid definitive feasibility study is another polymetallic deposit with historic roots in Bosnia. It currently hosts 466,000 tonnes of zinc, 294,000 tonnes of Lead, 500,000 ounces of gold and 52,000 tonnes of copper.
Strickland has plunged more than 18,000m of drilling into Medenovac to-date. The latest data has now given the company enough information to pull together a maiden resource which could be ready as early as the first quarter of next year.
The company is well-funded with $41.07 million in cash and Northern Star Resources shares as of the end of the September quarter. And with four rigs currently active on site, Strickland’s latest successful drilling results at Medenovac only mark part of a much wider plan to develop up a multi-million ounce mine at Rogozna which already hosts 5.4 million ounces of gold equivalent.
The drill program is working its way through the Shanac, Medenovac and Gradina deposits, with more results expected soon as additional assays are pending.
The plan is then to move one of the rigs to Jezerska Reka. According to Strickland, historical drilling at Jezerska has identified porphyry-related alteration and veining, confirming the prospect as a high-priority target for porphyry-hosted copper-gold mineralisation.
Next year bears all the hallmarks of a breakout year for Strickland. When its Serbian exploits are married up with the promising discovery developments at its Horse Well gold project in Western Australia, the company appears to be growing its inventory of the precious yellow metal at just the right time to grab maximum leverage over the rampant gold price, currently sitting at AU$4245 per ounce.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By James Pearson
