Strickland Metals reports 97% increase in Yandal project’s Horse Well resource estimate

Strickland Metals (ASX: STK) has almost doubled the mineral resource estimate (MRE) at the Horse Well gold camp within its wholly owned Yandal project in Western Australia.

The updated estimate, which sits at 4.68 million tonnes grading 1.94 grams per tonne gold for 291,500 ounces of gold, represents a 97% increase on the previous resource of 148,100oz released in 2019.

The global Yandal resource now totals 400,400oz gold grading 1.53g/t, representing a 56% increase from 257,000oz at 1.4g/t in 2019.

Extending mineralisation

The company based the update on its 2024 drilling campaign that focused on extending oxide and transitional mineralisation outside the historic resource estimate and delineating high-grade plunging shoots to provide a pathway for assessing underground potential.

The majority of the increase came through extensional drilling along strike undercover to the north-west of the Palomino deposit and step-out drilling at the Warmblood target.

Strickland determined that the optimised pit shell at Horse Well contained approximately 100,000oz in oxide material at 1.4 grams per tonne gold, denoting a valuable resource base when considering a future production scenario.

Yandal potential

Managing director Paul L’Herpiniere said the updated MRE was a milestone achievement for Strickland that reinforces the potential of the Yandal project as a significant growth opportunity.

“A large portion of our 2024 campaign intersected mineralisation that remains outside the update and we believe these areas will require a small amount of additional closer-spaced drilling to bring the resource into the inferred classification.”

Future exploration at Yandal will focus on depth extensions at Palomino and Warmblood, while additional drilling will also be conducted along the 1.6 kilometre-long Marwari Trend with a view to incorporating high-grade unclassified mineralisation into a future resource upgrade.

The updated MRE covers a combined 2.3km of strike length, with over 10km of gold trends the company is yet test with reverse circulation or diamond drilling.

Rogozna drilling

Strickland has engaged a fifth diamond rig to commence drilling at its wholly owned Rogozna gold–base metals project in Serbia, with a primary focus on testing the Obradov Potok prospect.

“Our team in Serbia has been working diligently over the past two months to prepare for what will be the largest-ever drilling campaign at Rogozna,” Mr L’Herpiniere said.

“Obradov Potok is an extremely large target area and we have multiple holes planned to test the system this year.”

Shanac updated resource

Strickland announced an updated resource last week at Rogozna’s cornerstone Shanac deposit, which included a 15% increase in contained metal on a gold equivalent (AuEq) basis, a 17% increase in contained gold, a 38% increase in contained copper and a 40% increase in contained zinc.

The new resource sits at 150Mt at 0.64g/t gold, 0.12% copper, 0.34% zinc, 0.24% lead and 5.8g/t silver (1.1g/t AuEq), and equates to 5.3 million ounces AuEq.

The total resource for Rogozna now stands at 7.4Moz AuEq, an increase of approximately 2Moz AuEq since Strickland acquired the project in July 2024.

Mr L’Herpiniere said the goal at Shanac was to improve the definition of higher-grade mineralised zones underpinning the core of the deposit, which is characterised by 15,000 ounces per vertical metre over a vertical extent of 300m.