Strickland Metals has moved quickly to make use of the $61 million it pocketed from selling its Millrose gold project, with the company set to launch an exploration blitz at its Yandal and Earaheedy operations.
Management says ongoing work in the Earaheedy Basin has identified a new lookalike prospect to its Iroquois project that has been dubbed Rabbit Well, while plans are in place for drilling at its Horse Well play on the Yandal Greenstone belt.
The Rabbit Well zinc prospect sits directly along strike from Iroquois and is defined by a 2.7km-long gravity anomaly with coincident base metal anomalism. An induced polarisation survey will kick off at the site this month with follow-up diamond drilling set to begin soon after.
The company has completed an extensive review of its exploration data after recording a 58m hit going 4.3 per cent zinc from 173m, including 4.3m grading an impressive 27 per cent zinc, at Iroquois in May. The review aims to develop an exploration strategy to define and expand extensions to the high-grade mineralisation along strike.
A 40,000m air-core (AC) drill campaign is planned for Horse Well as Strickland looks to develop an exploration model and potentially deliver an increase to its current mineral resource of 5.77 million tonnes at 1.4 grams per tonne gold for 257,000 ounces.
Plans are also in place to test its recently-discovered Great Western prospect to the east of Horse Well. Management says there is a strong gold-copper-molybdenum anomalism at surface, while the underlying magnetic feature is believed to be an ideal structure for a large, high-grade orogenic gold deposit. An initial AC program is planned for the site once heritage approvals are received.
Management also has high hopes for its Cowza gold prospect where it believes it has the potential to replicate the success of Millrose. During drilling at Millrose last year, the company identified a banded-iron formation (BIF) that was associated with high-grade primary gold mineralisation. The majority of drilling has been completed to the western side of the BIF, leaving the eastern side untested where Cowza is located.
Strickland Metals chief executive officer Andrew Bray said: “After completing our $61m sale of Millrose to Northern Star Resources Ltd, we are now ready to ramp up exploration programs on the remainder of our Yandal and Earaheedy ground. The Strickland team has prioritised a number of exciting, high-priority prospects, targeting new gold and new zinc discoveries.”
Strickland recently sold its Millrose project near Wiluna to neighbouring gold-mining giant Northern Star Resources for an initial cash deposit of $2 million before netting an additional $39 million in cash and being issued 1.5 million fully-paid ordinary Northern Star shares.
Millrose sits about 40km east of Northern Star’s more than 10-million-ounce Jundee gold operation in Western Australia’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.
With its pockets full of Northern Star cash and a bevy of targets ripe for drilling, Strickland seems to have boldly tapped into the old adage that suggests to make money, you have to spend money.
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By Michael Philipps
