Strata Minerals Secures Option Deal to Acquire Historical Zelica Gold Project in WA

Strata Minerals (ASX: SMX) has secured a deal with private company SGMB Resources granting it an option to acquire the Zelica gold project near Laverton in Western Australia.

The project contains a JORC 2004 compliant indicated and inferred shallow oxide resource of 576,800 tonnes grading 1.63 grams per tonne for 30,170 ounces of contained gold with mineralisation defined along a 1 kilometre zone, open at depth and along strike.

Consideration for the acquisition will comprise a $100,000 cash payment to SGMB and the issue of 11.87 million Strata shares at $0.02, along with a deferred cash payment of $100,000 on conversion of the resource to current compliance standards.

Limited Historical Drilling

Former owner Exterra Resources limited its historical drilling to an average vertical depth of 75m and there has been no further drilling at the site in the last decade.

Best assays from Exterra’s campaign included 9m at 8.8g/t from 27m, 3m at 5g/t from 29m, 7m at 4.9g/t from 26m, and 5m at 3.5g/t from 68m.

They, and the project’s other previous owners, stockpiled low-grade mineralised material collected from pre-stripping of a 300m-long open pit mine to 25m vertical depth, partially constructed vat leach ponds with a capacity of 80,000 cubic metres, and drilled water bores with reticulation of power and piping.

Initial Exploration Program

Post-completion of the deal, Strata plans to conduct an initial exploration program to expand Zelica’s inventory and upgrade the project’s resource.

This is likely to include infill and step-out drilling to collect geological, structural, and metallurgical information, as well as a pit-floor trenching program to validate historical results of near-surface, high-grade zones and provide Strata with new samples for metallurgical testing.

The company will also investigate the potential for early gold extraction opportunities by treating existing stockpile ore, and review historical conceptual studies that considered small-scale gold mining from a vat leach operation, as well as through third-party arrangements.

‘Value-Adding Catalysts’

Strata managing director Peter Woods said Zelica had the potential to propel the company from gold explorer to near-term pre-developer.

“Zelica is located in a highly-prospective and producing area of gold deposits, and we believe it has the potential to provide lots of news flow and value-adding catalysts in the near-term as we continue to search for other strategic opportunities in the surrounding area,” he said.

“Initially, we will aim to increase confidence and build upon the estimated inventory along the 1km mineralised strike zone as the deepest hole to date is only 115m and on average is only 75m depth.”

Prolific Gold Location

The Zelica project sits in the prolific Yundamindra District between the gold mining centres of Leonora and Laverton, and within 50km of multiple giant gold deposits and processing mills.

Recent exploration success at the high-grade Landed at Last prospect (owned by Arika Resources, ASX: ARI) and the 14 Mile Well project (Iceni Gold, ASX: ICL) has demonstrated the broader prospectivity of an area which has been subject to limited modern exploration.

Zelica’s geology is comprised of mafic and ultramafic volcanic rocks, dolerite and interbedded pyritic black shales of the Laverton Greenstone Belt, while the gold mineralisation is controlled by a shear zone interpreted to be part of the regionally-significant Celia Fault system.