Strickland Metals has nailed its first pass drilling campaign at its Dusk til Dawn prospect in WA with a stellar first up result of 33 metres going 3.6 grams per tonne gold. Strickland believes the maiden drill results confirm its new mineralisation modelling that could potentially boost the 109,000 ounce gold resource discovered by previous owners. It says up to 20 lookalike targets have now also been identified nearby.
Other notable intercepts to-date include 24m at 1.6 g/t gold from 196m that also takes in a richer 12m interval grading 2.5 g/t gold. Another hole delivered 32m at 1.2g/t gold from 120m, including 10m at 1.9 g/t gold.
The drilling also returned 11m going 2.0g/t gold from 157m, 7m at 2.2 g/t gold from 212m and 9m grading 1.8 g/t gold from 179m.
The exciting results come on the back of 10 RC holes from a total of 14 drilled at Dusk til Dawn so far, with assay results from the remaining holes still pending.
Importantly, Strickland believes the ongoing campaign represents the first time the drill rig has been correctly orientated in targeting gold mineralisation at the prospect.
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, according to the company.
A mineral resource update for the prospect is now anticipated early in the new year.
Curiously, Strickland says its new understanding of the Dusk til Dawn gold mineralisation could also provide a shot in the arm to its other gold targets in the region.
The company says it has identified a large alteration corridor to the north and south of Dusk til Dawn and a similar alteration corridor at its Big Daddy prospect on a parallel trend to the east.
Strickland says the two corridors, stretching for more than 10 kilometres in length each, host up to 20 gravity features akin to those identified at Dusk til Dawn through a recent gravity survey.
It now believes the gravity features could represent areas of more intense alteration with potential for its new model of mineralisation for Dusk til Dawn to also repeat throughout both corridors.
Strickland Metals Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Bray said: “This is the first time the mineralisation has been drilled with the rig correctly orientated. Almost all historic drilling has been completed oblique to the main plunge, meaning that historic drilling has not effectively tested or intersected the prospect.
This new understanding means that we can likely increase both the grade and tonnage of the resource, but more excitingly, it opens up two large ~10km alteration corridors where we are growing increasingly confident of finding repeats of this style of gold mineralisation.”
Strickland now plans to drill several holes within the alteration corridor in proximity to Dusk til Dawn and the rigs will test other regional targets in the area early in the new year.
Dusk til Dawn and Big Daddy both lie at the company’s Yandal gold project where a resource base of about 600,000 ounces of contained gold has been defined from several deposits.
The project also hosts potential for base metals mineralisation as evidenced by the company’s recent zinc-lead discovery near Dusk til Dawn.
Strickland saw its share price soar by more than 60 per cent in intraday trading last month after intercepting broad, shallow and high-grade zinc and lead mineralisation at its Iroquois prospect, located along strike to Rumble Resources’ renowned Chinook discovery in the Earheedy Basin.
The first two drill holes of an initial five-hole campaign at Iroquois returned thick mineralised hits, including 23m at 5.5 per cent combined zinc and lead from 108m.
The prospect lies directly along trend from Chinook where a discovery hole earlier this year hit 34m at 4.22 per cent zinc and lead, sending Rumble’s share price soaring from about $0.10 to as high as $0.80 within a couple months after discovery.
Rumble has tabled an exploration target at the project ranging between 100 and 120 million tonnes at between 3.5 and 4.5 per cent zinc and lead at Chinook.
Strickland appears to be kicking goals on two fronts at its Yandal tenure having now added the potential to unearth more ounces of gold at Dusk til Dawn.
New geological interpretations that deliver the goods are always exciting in greenfields exploration as they provide a whole new pathway to take on the road to riches – and with a maiden drill intercept of 33m going 3.6 g/t gold, Strickland’s new geological interpretation could not have worked out much better.
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By Matt Birney
