Strickland Metals Ltd (ASX:STK) has delivered encouraging broad gold hits, including 95.5 metres at 2.0 g/t gold from 176.5 metres, highlighting an emerging gold system at its Millrose Gold Project on the northeast flank of the Yandal Belt in Western Australia.
Within the 95.5-metre intersection in an initial hole targeting depth extensions underneath the current mineral resource was 8 metres at 14.6 g/t.
Notably, this is the first time this high-grade depth extension lode has been intersected at the Millrose Project.
The first hole in northern extensional drilling 50 metres north of the mineral resource also delivered with 54 metres at 1.8 g/t gold from 130 metres, including 23 metres at 2.4 g/t from 161 metres.
Looking ahead, a reverse circulation (RC) rig is continuing to test for southern extensions of the interpreted ore zone, while the diamond rig is completing tails on RC holes that did not reach the target depth, with an additional RC planned to be added next month to expedite the process.
“Grow mineralisation footprint”
Strickland CEO Andrew Bray said: “Millrose is continuing to deliver fantastic results and, importantly, grow the mineralisation footprint.
“Our initial drilling is demonstrating that we are indeed dealing with a very large gold system.
"The northern extension drilling has intersected the same primary lode 50 metres to the north of the current resource area, while the first hole targeting depth extensions yielded a very exciting 8.1 metres at 14.6 g/t gold from 215 metres within a broader mineralised envelope.
“Our geological model remains robust across the project area. The banded iron formation (BIF) unit in the footwall is continuing to be a key marker horizon for the interpreted ore zone.
“Previous magnetic surveys highlight this BIF unit extending for over 8 kilometres, with a further 5 kilometres offset extension to the north.
“This means we have potentially a 13-kilometre gold mineralised structure to continue testing."
Drilling at Millrose
To date, Strickland has completed about 50 RC holes, with 27 of these having diamond tails at the Millrose Project.
Mineralisation is hosted within a broad shear zone (up to 160 metres in width), on the contact between mafic schist and felsic sediments
From the drilling completed to date, there appears to be three main styles of alteration associated with the gold mineralisation, hosted within the shear structure itself which include:
- Silica – hematite – pyrite – breccia (altered mylonite);
- Silica – pyrite – chlorite – hematite mylonite; and
- Talc – chlorite – tremolite – pyrite schist.
The higher-grade gold intersection released to date appears to be associated with the first two units, with a more consistent lower grade zone associated with the talc-chlorite-tremolite-pyrite schist.
Forward plan
Strickland will kick off a planned 700-metre diamond hole testing for further extensions under the current mineral resource.
Bray adds: “We’re expecting the mineralisation to both dilate and pinch-in along strike throughout the 13 kilometres, with future resource drilling to focus on areas of dilation and high-grade depth extensions.
“In order to expedite the planned drilling of the shear zone along strike, the company plans to add an additional RC rig next month.”