The company discovered the Marwari prospect at Yandal in September. Pic: via Getty Images.
How big is the Marwari gold discovery? A resurgent Strickland is about to find out
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- Strickland Metals’ diamond drilling intersects down-dip structure of recently drilled discovery hole at Marwari
- Assays pending but geology matches discovery hole which returned 31m at 5.6g/t gold
- Company also flags a new gold target at the Konik discovery
- Aircore and RC drilling is ongoing
Special Report: Strickland Metals says the first four diamond holes into the Marwari discovery in WA have intersected the same –albeit thicker – gold-rich rocks as the discovery hole, which pulled up 31m at 5.6g/t from ~70m.
The company is on a tear ever since it sold its Millrose gold project to Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) for a whopping $61m.
STK is now laser-focused on squeezing as much as it can out of its underexplored Horse Well gold project in the prolific Yandal greenstone belt.
In September, it discovered Marwari, which could potentially host a very significant gold deposit.
The first four diamond holes drilled at the Marwari prospect have now all successfully intersected the targeted stratigraphy with holes MWDD001 and 003 both intersected significant shearing, veining, sulphides and alteration interpreted to be down dip extensions of the discovery hole HWAC1472.
Notably, this hole returned 31m at 5.6g/t gold from ~70m to bottom of hole.
Assays are pending, with drilling of the fifth diamond hole currently underway.
Geology matches up with discovery hole
The company says its magnetic inversion model has been particularly accurate in predicting the targeted geological units, as well as increasing intensity of shearing, veining, sulphide abundance and alteration.
“The company has successfully completed the first four diamond holes from its ongoing drilling at Marwari,” Strickland Metals (ASX:STK) CEO Andrew Bray said.
“All four holes have intersected the target stratigraphy, albeit over greater widths than initially anticipated.
“Intense alteration, veining and shearing (intercalated BIF and intermediate volcaniclastic units) was intersected from 128m to 205m in MWDD001, with an additional wider and more intense zone intersected across the down-dip extension in MWDD003 from 180m to 270m.
“The geology, alteration and veining match up with the aircore results reported in the original discovery hole up-dip HWAC1472.
“The same unit has also been intersected 80m along strike in MWDD004 from 182m to 261m, with similar visual observations to MWDD003.”
Gold target to follow up at Konik
Separately, aircore holes were completed along strike from the Konik discovery hole last month, returning 58m at 1.7g/t gold from 17m and uncovering a ~450m long anomalous gold trend.
The interpreted ore zone appears to be west dipping, meaning the discovery hole in HWAC1488 was drilled oblique to the mineralisation.
The estimated true width of the ore zone in fresh rock is approximately 15m.
Gold is hosted in quartz-pyrite veining and has associated intense shearing and moderate silica alteration.
The company says there remains strong potential for stacked lodes throughout the prospect area.
As aircore drilling proved largely ineffective in penetrating deep enough across the structure to successfully test the targeted zones, follow up RC drilling is planned in 2024.
What’s next?
A 50,000m aircore drilling program is ongoing and is expected to be completed by the end of the month. Deeper RC drilling is also underway with an initial 21 holes at the Marwari then 12 holes at the Chetak prospect.
In addition, a new demagnetised zone between Marwari and Chetak has been identified, which could potentially represent a very fertile area for additional mineralisation.
Strong mineralisation in this demagnetised area would be consistent with the geological model the company is currently operating under – and this will be a priority for RC drill testing early in the new year.
The company has also secured ethnographic heritage clearance for the Great Western gold target where 2 RC fence lines will be drilled across the prospect as part of an initial program.
This drilling is scheduled to commence in early December and will be completed as the final part of the 2023 RC program.
This article was developed in collaboration with Strickland Metals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
