Strickland boosts Serbian prospect with further thick gold hit

Strickland Metals has boosted its Gradina prospect with a further thick gold hit of 62.7 metres grading 3.5 grams per tonne (g/t) from 386m at its ever-expanding 7.4-million-ounce gold-equivalent Rogozna project in southern Serbia.

The latest assay results from the recent diamond drill hole include 27.8m at 6.3g/t gold from 388m and 4.1m running at 8.5g/t from 420.7m.

Drill core from 424.6m depth taken from Strickland Metals’ recent drilling program at the company’s Gradina prospect, part of its Rogozna gold and base metal project in Serbia. The intercept graded 13.4g/t gold.

The results follow hot on the heels of last week’s drill numbers. High-grade gold hits consisted of 4m at 10.1g/t from 339.5m and 16.7m going 4.3g/t, including 8m at 6g/t from 391.5m, from a first hole in the company’s latest drilling program at Gradina.

Management says the ongoing program extends the gold-dominant mineralisation closer to surface, demonstrating the excellent potential for the up-dip position of Gradina to host significant high-grade gold. The mineralisation remains open in all directions and is backed by strong geochemical responses identified up-dip towards surface in historical soil samples.

‘The results from the latest hole are exceptional, revealing some of the highest gold grades seen at the Gradina system to date and over substantial widths.’

Strickland Metals managing director Paul L’Herpiniere

The latest hole was drilled 50m up-dip from a drill hole completed last year, which returned gold grades of 4m at 2.8g/t from 407.1m, 2m going 2.3g/t from 417.1m and a 12m section running 3.6g/t from 441.1m.

The company is completing follow-up drilling to test for further up-dip extensions, in addition to infill drilling of strongly mineralised zones to support a maiden resource estimate later this year.

Strickland Metals managing director Paul L’Herpiniere said: “The results from the latest hole are exceptional, revealing some of the highest gold grades seen at the Gradina system to date and over substantial widths. They further support our belief that Gradina will make a considerable contribution of high-grade ounces to the Rogozna resource inventory by late-2025.”

The company says mineralisation encountered in the latest drill hole is hosted within silicified brown-garnet skarn and associated with strong pyrrhotite and pyrite alteration and veining. The highest gold grades are associated with zones of massive pyrrhotite. Bedding of the carbonate sequence controls the mineralisation geometry.

Management believes surface-based electromagnetic surveying may prove an effective exploration method at Gradina in the upper parts of the deposit. The orebody remains open along strike to the northwest.

Gradina is part of Strickland’s huge 7.4M-ounce gold-equivalent Rogozna project in southern Serbia. Unlike the project’s Shanac, Medenovac and Copper Canyon deposits, which include valuable silver, copper, zinc and lead, Gradina appears to be a gold only prospect.

The strong results came from the deposit’s northern end and extend the known high-grade mineralisation across 1 kilometre of strike and vertically down to 900m.

The initial diamond drill hole in the recent drilling program, which started in March, was plunged into the northern section of what appears to be a mineralised corridor, defined by previous drilling at the prospect.

Previous impressive drill intervals at Gradina, in the project’s southeast section, include gold hits of 32m running 6.8g/t from 595m, 27.5m at 5g/t from 439.8m and 14.3m going 8g/t from 516.9m.

Four drill rigs are hammering away to grow the resource for the maiden reveal later this year, with current earthworks ongoing to provide drill access to the up-dip position towards the southern end of the prospect.

An additional two rigs are working at the project’s premier deposit Shanac and Kotlovi.

A seventh rig is expected to arrive this month as the company continues ratcheting up exploration. It plans to run a massive 50,000m diamond drill campaign this year at the fully-owned project.

Strickland is still sitting on a mountain of cash and liquid assets totalling $34.8 million at the end of March, along with an eye-opening $5M strategic investment received in April from US$60 billion Chinese mining firm Zijin Mining.

The company has completed 15 drill holes since beginning its program, with assays pending for 11 holes. It expects to receive the outstanding assays in the coming weeks.

Rogozna consists of four exploration licences within an area of about 184 square kilometres. The project hosts a giant magmatic hydrothermal system characterised by extensive skarn-based gold-copper mineralisation with varying levels of associated silver, copper, lead and zinc.

Strickland’s current key deposits within the project include its flagship 5.3M-ounce gold equivalent Shanac inferred resource, its 1.28M-ounce gold equivalent Medenovac resource and the 0.81M-ounce gold equivalent resource at Copper Canyon.

The company is also aiming to spin the drill bit into high-priority targets at its new Jezerska Reka discovery and its Kotlovi, Veleiki and Red Creek targets. It will also follow up new, earlier stage targets at Obradov Potok, Leca, Wolf Pond and Kaluder.

The Rogozna project appears to be going from strength to strength, and with the gold price of US$3371 (A$5198) per ounce hovering near all-time highs, Strickland may show up on a big dog’s radar if it continues to grow its already impressive size.

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