A project review by Strickland Metals Ltd (ASX:STK) continues to yield important insights at the Yandal Gold Project in Western Australia, where the Bronco and Konik prospects of the Horse Well area have been determined to form part of the same geological structure.
The company believes the prospect offers a large-scale bulk tonnage target, with a high-grade oxide zone at surface and more mineralisation at depth.
“As mentioned in several previous announcements, Strickland has spent substantial time in recent months collating, reviewing and modelling data from last year’s large drilling campaign,” Strickland Metals CEO Andrew Bray said.
“This ongoing work is continuing to yield significant project advancements. On October 2, 2023, we announced the Konik discovery in (drill hole) HWAC1488: 58 metres at 1.7g/t gold from 17 metres to bottom of hole.
“Approximately 250 metres to the southwest lies the historical Bronco prospect. Our initial thinking at the time was that both prospects were hosted on parallel structures, however, it is now clear that they are part of the same structure.”
Bronco prospect
“Bronco was initially discovered in the mid-1990s,” Bray continued, “It had since been subject to only one small follow-up reverse circulation (RC) program in 2019.
“Historical drilling returned very impressive shallow oxide gold results, however, due to the drilling pattern, mineralisation did not appear to show coherency section to section.
“This is evident from the orientation of drilling, whereby the rig was pointed in virtually every direction in an attempt to understand the mineralisation, albeit with little success.
“The drilling in HWAC1488 at Konik last year intersected the same basal horizon as observed historically at Bronco (ie the contact between the hanging wall felsic volcanics and the footwall mafic volcanics).
“This means both prospects are actually on the same structure, with the combined prospect area being a large bulk tonnage target.
“This new interpretation is also supported by other historical drilling, including HWRC125: 79 metres at 1.0 g/t gold from 10 metres – a result which lies in between Konik and Bronco, and which had historically never been fully explained or understood.
“Several Bronco intersections lend further credence to this interpretation, including HWRC072: 89 metres at 3.0 g/t from 18 metres to bottom of hole, and the deepest hole to date drilled there, HWRC251: 95 metres at 0.7 g/t gold from 144 metres of depth.”
Topographic image showing the connection between the Bronco and Konik prospects.
Bulk-tonnage target
“Remodelling the prospect as a bulk tonnage target has allowed Strickland to determine the orientation of the mineralisation,” Bray explained.
“The Bronco-Konik prospect dips to the west, plunges gently to the northwest and remains entirely open both down-plunge and down-dip.”
Cross section of Bronco-Konik highlighting shallow high grade oxide intercepts and primary bulk potential
“The prospect area has also been expanded to approximately 500 metres of strike,” Bray said.
“Importantly, treating Bronco-Konik as a bulk-tonnage target does not limit the potential extensions to the higher-grade zones of mineralisation intersected at depth.
“This development is also highly significant for Strickland as none of this gold mineralisation has been included in any historical resource calculations. Bronco-Konik will be drilled once the main drilling campaigns for 2024 commence.”
Strickland is well-funded to pursue its exploration ambitions into 2024, with cash and Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) shares totalling $54 million held at the end of last quarter.