Strickland Metals continues to deliver from drilling at its Horse Well project after recording a 39m hit at 6.1 grams per tonne gold from 25m at its Palomino prospect, including 7m going 22.2g/t gold from 45m.
The company’s latest drilling program is targeting southern extensions to its Marwari target discovery hole that recorded a 31m intercept grading 5.6g/t gold from 72m and extended the structure to a 500m strike length, with assays pending.
Management has also reinterpreted its regional datasets and combined the results with its existing geology to highlight a strike extension of about 3km to the north-west of Marwari and Palomin, where no historic drilling has occurred.
Strickland has dubbed the new area Pegasus, but will be out to prove it is no mythical beast. It believes the potential scale of the target dwarfs what it has recorded to date at Marwari.
An air-core (AC) rig has been moved to the new site to test the structure before it is sent back to Marwari to continue its planned program, in addition to the greater Horse Well area. The ongoing drilling is part of a 40,000m AC campaign aimed at testing Horse Well, which holds a current mineral resource of 5.77 million tonnes at 1.4g/t gold for 257,000 ounces and includes 109,000 gold ounces at the company’s Dusk ‘til Dawn deposit.
Following the encouraging results at Marwari, a reverse-circulation (RC) rig has been secured and is set arrive next month for further drilling at the prospect, in addition to following up any significant intercepts at Pegasus.
Strickland Metals chief executive officer Andrew Bray said: “Our air-core program at Horse Well continues to deliver fantastic results, with air-core drilling now having intersected the Marwari structure over 500m to the south of the discovery hole in HWAC1472, as well as a very impressive intersection being returned from an air-core fence line over the Palomino prospect. This drilling is continuing to demonstrate that the Horse Well area can deliver highly impressive grade and width within the mineralised system.”
Management says it remains well-funded for its ongoing exploration at Horse Well following its success at the nearby Millrose gold project that Strickland recently sold to neighbouring gold-mining giant Northern Star Resources.
The company raked in an initial cash deposit of $2 million from Northern Star for Millrose, before netting an additional $39 million in cash and was also issued 1.5 million fully-paid ordinary shares from the high-profile buyer.
Millrose sits about 40km east of Northern Star’s more than 10-million-ounce Jundee gold operation in WA’s Northern Goldfields region. The acquisition adds a mineral resource of 6 million tonnes at 1.8g/t gold for 346,000 ounces to the purchaser’s portfolio.
One of the keys to Strickland’s success at Millrose was identifying a banded-iron formation (BIF) that was associated with high-grade primary gold mineralisation.
Management believes it has discovered a similar BIF at Marwari that is traceable through regional geophysical datasets. If the company can replicate its Millrose success at Horse Well, the market will be forced to sit up and pay attention.
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By Michael Philipps
