Strickland Metals plans drilling at its remote Iroquois zinc-lead project

Strickland has turned its attention towards the Iroquois zinc-lead project with drilling expected to re-commence once it secures approvals and heritage clearances.

The company has requested for a Native Title heritage survey to be held in August, with plans in place to carry out an initial 5,000m of drilling to follow-up on its successful 2021 program once the green light’s been lit and a further 5,000m after that, subject to the success of the initial program.

Strickland Metals’ (ASX:STK) maiden RC drilling in 2021 had yielded a top hit of 23m grading 5.5% zinc+lead from a down-hole depth of 108m including 14m at 4.5% zinc+lead from 108m and 9m at 7% zinc+lead from 135m in IQRC001, though this was by no means the only successful drill hole.

This drilling also confirmed a previously observed upper zinc only zone and the lower zinc and lead combo zone.

A shift in focus

While the company had previously focused on drilling at its flagship Millrose gold project, chief executive officer Andrew Bray said the arrival of a third rig gave the company the flexibility and opportunity to undertake a series of targeted programs at Iroquois.

“This allows us to continue advancing Iroquois while determining the best course of action for its possible future development,” he added.

“We will commence with a 5,000m program with a further 5,000m of drilling to be planned subject to continued positive results. Initial metallurgical testwork will also be planned.

“As part of recommencing work at Iroquois, a large soil sampling program will be undertaken. Previous work conducted by Strickland has demonstrated that elevated copper in soil is an accurate marker of the ‘feeder structure’ which controls the zinc-lead mineralisation.

“The company believes that future soil and geophysical programs will assist with locating further structures which can then be drill tested.”

Base metals province

Iroquois is located within WA’s Earaheedy Basin, which thanks to Rumble Resources’ (ASX:RTR) successful (and adjacent) Earaheedy project, is rapidly shaping up as one of Australia’s most exciting base metal provinces.

Notably, the project hosts about 30km of prospective strike southeast of Rumble’s Chinook discovery.

Strickland intends to carry out geological mapping and rock chip sampling to expand known mineralised zones and locate elevated copper geochemical anomalies while a trial IP survey will be undertaken to understand the effectiveness across known mineralised zones.

It added that previous drilling had been constrained by historical Native Title heritage clearance surveys which had made it impossible to test the interpreted zone.

The upcoming heritage survey is aimed at addressing this deficiency and allow the company to test some of the most intriguing areas.

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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.