Strickland Metals delivers more big copper-gold hits in Serbia
- Doug Bright
- Dec 15, 2025
- 3 min read
Strickland Metals (ASX: STK) has reported new results from two recently completed diamond drill holes at its 800,000-ounce-gold-equivalent Copper Canyon deposit, one of four priority deposits at the company’s 8.6-million-ounce gold-equivalent Rogozna gold and base metals project in Serbia.
The drill rig targeted shallow copper-gold mineralisation, including several high-grade zones, within the gold pit Copper Canyon design shell, which has been modelled on a US$2000 (A$3008) per-ounce gold price. The current Australian gold price is A$6494 per ounce.
One drill hole returned 134.6 metres grading 0.6 per cent copper and 0.1 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 95.1m, including 72.6m running at 0.8 per cent copper and 0.1(g/t) gold from 157.1m.
That intercept included two further sections of 16.6m going 1.6 per cent copper and 0.1g/t gold from 157.1m, and 20.4m at 1.8g/t gold from 360.5m, within a broader 36.1-metre slice grading 1.3g/t gold from 346.5m.
We intend to update the Copper Canyon Resource next year for inclusion in our development studies for Rogozna.
Strickland Metals Managing Director Paul L’Herpiniere
The second drill hole returned 142.8m at 0.3 per cent copper and 0.3g/t gold from 6.2m, including 12.9m at 1.3 per cent copper and 0.8g/t gold from 36.2m.
Both holes were plunged into the central part of the Copper Canyon deposit, where earlier drilling encountered strong skarn-hosted copper-gold mineralisation from shallow depths.
The thick copper-gold mineralisation in the first hole is hosted within green garnet skarn and is associated with disseminated to massive sulphide zones of chalcopyrite containing copper, coupled with iron sulphides such as pyrite and pyrrhotite.
Below the main copper-gold zone, a flat-lying gold-only zone associated with pyrrhotite alteration remains open along strike and represents a key future exploration target.
Near-surface mineralisation in the second hole is similarly hosted in green garnet skarn with disseminated chalcopyrite, pyrite and pyrrhotite, including high-grade zones linked to semi-massive pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite.
The latest results confirm and amplify the picture first sketched in early October, when Strickland stunned the market with a monster 191.2m hit grading 0.5g/t gold and 0.5 per cent copper from just 4.8m downhole.
The fact that the mineralisation is outcropping and includes some very wide zones of copper-gold mineralisation, including significant higher-grade zones, makes Copper Canyon an attractive and strategic opportunity for Strickland.
Strickland Metals Managing Director Paul L’Herpiniere
Together, the company says the results demonstrate excellent shallow copper-gold mineralisation at Copper Canyon. The long intercepts highlight Copper Canyon’s optionality as part of the company’s overall Rogozna development strategy.
Strickland’s rapidly growing and remarkable polymetallic Rogozna project sits in the Raška District of southern Serbia, about 400km south of Belgrade. The project area has good access via regional highways, with local roads and tracks.
Rogozna lies within the Tethyan Metallogenic Belt - a globally significant geological structural complex, which hosts multiple giant, porphyry-related deposits. The Belt is traceable for about 12,000km from Europe’s Pyrenees and Alps through to Anatolia, Iran, Pakistan, the Himalayas and Southeast Asia.
Strickland says its project appears to be a similar large-scale magmatic hydrothermal system characterised by skarn-based gold-copper mineralisation, including zinc, silver and lead.
Covering an area of about 184 square kilometres, Rogozna comprises four exploration licences and hosts a JORC inferred mineral resource of 8.6 million ounces of gold equivalent, comprising 5.2 million ounces of gold, 321,000 tonnes of copper and 32.3 million ounces of silver.
An additional base metal component of the global resource estimate includes 383,000 tonnes of lead and 830,000 tonnes of zinc.
The key prospects within the project are the current flagship deposit at Shanac, while the presently most advanced deposits at Gradina, Medenovac and Copper Canyon all lie within a 5km radius of Shanac.
At least nine other high-quality prospects lie within 10km of Shanac, to the north, west and southwest, all supporting various styles of mineralisation, including epithermal and porphyry-hosted copper-gold deposits.
Strickland believes the project has the potential to become one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in the world. To test that view, the company is pressing ahead with a 50,000m drilling program across Rogozna, including at its Gradina “gap zone” and other targets.
As the 2025 field season nears completion, the drill program is expected to wrap up by late December, with assays pending for multiple holes. Drilling is slated to kick off again in February 2026 and will ramp up to involve at least eight diamond rigs by the second quarter.
The latest results met with market approval today, rewarding the company with a midday share price spike of 2.6 per cent to 19.5 cents.
Strickland remains in a strong financial position to advance the project, with cash and liquid assets as of 30 September 2025 totalling $41.8 million.
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