Strickland Metals has kicked off drilling at its Earaheedy and Yandal projects in WA’s Pilbara region with a rig already operating on-site to focus on the company’s large-scale Rabbit Well base metal prospect.
Management says a 6000m reverse circulation (RC) drill program has been designed at Rabbit Well to map out the mineralisation and geology of the target in preparation for follow up diamond drilling.
The Rabbit Well base metals prospect forms part of the Earaheedy project on the contact of the Yilgarn Craton that is considered a major target for copper, zinc, lead and silver.
Strickland recently ran a 3D induced-polarisation (IP) survey over the target, which is directly along strike from the company’s Iroquois project and is notable for its 2.7km-long gravity anomaly that coincides with base a metal anomalism.
In May, diamond drilling at Rabbit Well intersected impressive high-grade zinc, with 58m grading 4.3 per cent zinc and 3.7 grams per tonne silver from 173m, including 11.1m going as high as 6.7 per cent zinc and 7.4g/t silver from 176m. Another 4.3m hit came in at 27 per cent zinc, 0.1 per cent lead and 19.9g/t silver from 226.7m.
Following a comprehensive air core drill campaign to finish out 2023, Strickland has a bank of assays still pending from its Marwari, Great Western and Chetak prospects. Previous results from Marwari showed high-grade gold hits including a very impressive 24m at 7.4g/t gold from 29m and a second hole yielding 3m at 8.9g/t gold from 71m.
The results from last year’s program will be used to guide the RC rig to follow-up a significant list of targets across both the Earaheedy and Yandal projects. Management says heritage officers were on site last week and a large number of drill pads have been cleared in preparation for drilling.
Strickland says while drilling conditions can be particularly difficult during this time of year, it is aiming to keep the one RC rig on site until the wet season has passed, at which point additional rigs will arrive. Major drilling campaigns are expected to start towards the end of this quarter when weather conditions are expected to improve.
Strickland Metals chief executive officer Andrew Bray said: “After a lot of exploration work in the second half of 2023 (including numerous successes identifying new prospect areas requiring follow up exploration), the Company is very excited to have drilling underway again on site. There is a significant list of targets that require RC drilling at both our Yandal and Earaheedy projects, with the current rig expected to start working systematically through these prospects.”
Strickland is well-funded for its ongoing exploration program following its success at the nearby Millrose gold project that it sold last year to neighbouring gold-mining giant Northern Star Resources.
The company raked in an initial cash deposit of $2 million from Northern Star for Millrose, before netting an additional $39 million in cash and was also issued 1.5 million fully-paid ordinary shares from the high-profile buyer in a deal worth about $61 million all up.
While weather conditions may contribute to a slower start to Strickand’s ongoing exploration in the Pilbara, the company has plenty of cash in the bank and a slew of intriguing targets to focus its attention on as it prepares for an increased drilling blitz towards the end of this quarter.
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By Michael Philipps
