Encouraging maiden gold results at Strata’s Penny South support follow-up drilling

• Strata Minerals’ maiden drilling has potentially identified the top of a key structural zone at Target 1 in Penny South
• Drilling also intersected gold mineralisation at Target 3 that remains open along strike to the north
• Planning underway for follow-up deep drilling at Target 1 and to test extensions at Target 3

Special Report: Strata Minerals has committed to follow-up drilling at its Penny South gold project in WA’s Goldfields after maiden drilling returned encouraging results.

The drilling, targeting areas south of the high-grade Penny West and Penny North deposits being mined by Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS), intersected the interpreted extension of the key structure that hosts Penny West at Target Area 1.

Drill data indicates that hole SMX001, which returned 1m at 1.65g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 189m, only intersected the up-dip margin to a potential steep plunging high-grade system.

Meanwhile, five holes drilled by Strata Minerals (ASX:SMX) to test down-dip of a series of near-surface anomalous historical drill intersections at Target Area 3 returned up to 4m at 2.02g/t gold from 88m.

“The results from our first drilling program at Penny South mark an important milestone in our exploration campaign,” managing director Peter Woods said.

“While in its early days, the program has provided critical insights into the geological structures in what is a potentially significant gold system that hosts the two high-grade Penny deposits ~500m to our north.

“The drilling has identified what is potentially the top of a key structural zone that is plunging beneath this first phase of drilling.

“The important information gathered from this first round of drilling provides strong encouragement for us to start planning the next program of drilling, including a deeper test by diamond drilling at Target 1 in which the government co-funded exploration grant will assist with.”

SMX has secured up to $200,000 of co-funding for drilling under the Western Australian Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme.

Drill results

The maiden 12 hole program totalling 2583m at the Target 1 and Target 3 areas was carried out to test interpreted down-plunge extensions of known mineralisation trends and beneath zones of significant gold anomalies from historical drilling.

At Target 1, data from drilling indicated that the targeted shear zone appears to have a steeper dip than previously thought as the follow-up hole SMX004 did not intersect the targeted zone due to reverse circulation depth limitations.

This led to the interpretation that the main mineralised target zone, which would be associated with the identified de-magnetisation, remains untested at depth, and that the current drilling has only intersected the up-dip margin to a potential steep plunging high-grade system.

Over at Target 3, drilling beneath a series of near-surface intersections that had identified a near-surface zone of sporadic, flat-lying gold mineralisation returned a significant hit of 4m at 2.02g/t gold from 88m.

Mineralisation remains open along strike to the north and down-plunge to the south.

Planning is underway for deeper diamond drilling to test the main interpreted mineralised zone at Target 1, while follow-up RC drilling is proposed to chase the open extensions at Target 3.

SMX will also progress heritage and access approvals for Targets 2 and 4 which will enable exploration at these high-priority areas.

This article was developed in collaboration with Strata Minerals, 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.