Strata Minerals pulls high-grade gold-silver at Biranup

• High-grade rock chips deliver up to 218g/t gold and 302g/t silver
• Results build on work of previous explorers
• Immediate follow-up exploration program planning is underway

Special report: Strata Minerals has verified gold and silver prospectivity at the Black Dragon prospect, next door and along trend of AngloGold Ashanti and Regis Resources’ 5Moz Tropicana gold mine, following the delivery of high-grade rock chip results.

Grades of up to 218g/t gold and 302g/t silver have been received as part of a program of structural mapping and outcrop sampling, which highlighted at least three main east-dipping mineralised trends within the limited area of outcrop.

The recent outcrop sampling program collected 61 samples, of which eight (13%) reported grades over 30g/t gold and 27 (44%) returned grades over 1g/t gold.

Interestingly, samples with grades above 10g/t gold also exhibited highly elevated silver and tellurium levels.

Strata Minerals (ASX:SMX) believes the results complement a program of rock chip sampling by previous explorers where 170 rock chips were taken across the wider project area.

Around 46 (27%) recorded levels of over 1g/t gold while 11 (6.5%) hit more than 30g/t gold.

High-priority gold targets

Following a strategic review earlier this year, the company’s Black Dragon and Red Dragon prospects were identified as high-priority gold targets at the Biranup project.

Biranup straddles the boundary between the Tropicana Zone to the north and the younger Biranup Zone to the south within the northern Albany-Fraser Orogen, with both Black and Red Dragon forming part of the NAFO – a ~100km-long and 20km wide gold corridor that follows a >250km long gravity structure interpreted as a deep-seated basement fault.

The discovery of the Tropicana deposit in 2005 dramatically changed the perception of the gold prospectivity of this poorly outcropping belt with many ASX explorers following suite in hopes of finding the next big discovery.

Today, over 35 orogenic and intrusion-related gold occurrences are known, including three distinct gold mineralising events (Tropicana, Hercules and Voodoo Child).

“We view Biranup as a very exciting gold project which has not previously been explored for gold by the company,” SMX managing director Peter Woods said.

“Our recent review and assessment work undertaken highlighted the underexplored opportunity at Biranup and after conducting fieldwork, we are even more encouraged that we are looking at a large, and potentially high-grade gold system with minimal prior effective exploration.

“We will now consolidate these recent results and begin planning the next stage of exploration programs.”

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What now?

Upcoming exploration will focus on several key areas.

A full integration of recent sample results with historical Black Dragon drilling will create an updated geological interpretation which will then be utilised for planning additional drilling.

An ongoing assessment of the effectiveness of wide spaced AC drilling along the 4.5km trend to the north and south of Black Dragon beneath the extensive transported cover will be undertaken.

And tenement consolidation based on the results of the recent desktop and field studies will also be carried out allowing Strata to focus on the most prospective ground to ensure exploration efforts and expenditure are concentrated on high-priority targets.

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.