Strickland scores highest grade yet at Shanac, returning 89.7m at 4g/t

The first drill hole at Strickland’s Shanac deposit has intersected a spectacular result
Strickland Metals says the intersection is the strongest mineralisation ever encountered at the site
Seven drill rigs are still in progress at both Rogozna and the Yandal project in WA

Special Report: Results from the first hole at Strickland Metals’ Shanac deposit have validated the company’s geological model for the controls on high-grade mineralisation.

Strickland Metals (ASX:STK) has been doubling down on its exploration efforts at the Rogozna gold and base metals project with a 60,000m diamond drilling plan that will take the company through to calendar year 2025.

The program has been designed to deliver a substantial increase to the current 5.4Moz gold equivalent resource base with 35,000m of drilling ear-marked across the Shanac, Medenovac, Gradina and Copper Canyon deposits.

Shanac is the most advanced part of the Rogozna project with its high-grade core occurring from ~150m to 450m depth, representing about 30% of the total endowment of the deposit and averaging a very impressive 14,000 gold equivalent ounces per vertical metre.

At Shanac, STK’s focus is to better define the high-grade core, the results of which will feed into ongoing mining studies.

Diamond drilling at Shanac. Pic: Strickland Metals

Eye-watering drilling results

STK’s first drill hole at the Shanac deposit has returned an eye-watering intercept of 89.7m at 4g/t gold from 244.5m including 24.1m at 10.5 g/t gold from 296.2m.

The company says this is the first time this high-grade, gold only zone has been intersected in drilling, highlighting the potential to substantially enhance the 4.6Moz Shanac resource.

Multiple additional zones of strong mineralisation were also encountered, amounting to an intersection of 293.9m at 2.5 g/t gold equivalent from 162.3m.

STK says the hole has provided a far-greater understanding of the geological controls on a higher-grade “Central Domain”, including the newly identified high-grade gold zone and has defined a focused target with follow-up drilling to begin shortly.

‘Highest gold grades ever encountered’

“These results from the first hole are phenomenal,” STK managing director Paul L’Herpiniere says.

“Our strategy for Shanac has been to target the higher-grade zones of the deposit to upgrade the 4.6Moz gold equivalent inferred resource.

“Not only did we discover the highest gold grades ever encountered at the Rogozna Project, but we also encountered extensive copper-gold mineralisation further down the hole with an ~109m long interval containing 1.3g/t gold with 0.4% copper, including multiple zones of massive chalcopyrite, with assays up to 11% copper,” he says.

“This is a very large deposit and it is only now that, with the start of closer spaced drilling, we are defining what we refer to as the “Central Domain” which appears to be a consistently strongly mineralised volume within the larger Shanac deposit.”