Strickland Metals Ltd (ASX:STK) has begun phase two metallurgical test work on bulk sample material from the cornerstone Shanac deposit of the Rogozna Gold and Base Metals Project in Serbia.
The company’s previous efforts produced gold recoveries of 85.9% and copper recoveries of 81% from standard floatation processes – this next phase is designed to improve overall recoveries and confirm the flowsheet design for the deposit.
Shanac already holds a mineral resource estimate of 4.6 million ounces of gold and STK has four drilling rigs on-site at Rogozna, with results from several drill holes expected in the coming weeks.
Four rigs drilling around the clock
“While some polymetallic deposits can present challenges in relation to potential metal recoveries and the associated economics of processing them, previous test work conducted in 2021 returned extremely positive results for Rogozna, with gold recoveries of 85.9% and copper recoveries of 81.0% achieved for Shanac,” Strickland Metals managing director Paul L’Herpiniere said.
“Polymetallic deposits such as those which occur at Rogozna are very common in the Western Tethyan Belt, including the world-class zinc-lead-silver Trepca deposits located in proximity to Rogozna and the Rupice silver-zinc-lead-gold-copper deposit that was recently developed by Adriatic Metals at Vares in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Given the extended history of mining in the region, the successful processing of these deposits using industry-standard flotation techniques has long been established.
“With four rigs continuing to drill around the clock at Rogozna, the team are energised by the excellent results we have received thus far from our first drilling program conducted under the Strickland banner.
“We have several holes with assays outstanding, including the initial Kotlovi exploration holes and look forward to reporting further positive results in coming weeks.”
STK is particularly interested in results from the Kotlovi prospect as it sits just 400 metres southwest of the Medenovac prospect, which recently produced drilling results of up to 43.4 metres at 4.6 g/t gold equivalent from 357.2 metres and 50 metres at 5.6 g/t gold equivalent from 271.5 metres.
Strickland has begun the sample selection process at Medenovac and expects to dispatch metallurgical samples to the laboratory in the next few weeks.