Strickland Metals stacks up thick gold hits as Serbian resource update nears
- James Pearson
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Strickland Metals (ASX: STK) has come out swinging in the New Year, delivering another impressive set of diamond drill results from its cornerstone Shanac deposit within the company’s Rogozna gold and base metals project in southern Serbia.
The latest assays reinforced what has become a familiar theme for the ASX-listed explorer - Shanac is shaping up as a large, long-life system that combines bulk-tonnage muscle with eye-catching pockets of high-grade mineralisation.
Three recently completed diamond holes have returned a string of thick gold-equivalent intercepts, further building confidence ahead of an updated resource estimate due later this quarter. The drilling targeted both the heart of the deposit and the eastern margin of its southern extent, with results suggesting the mineralised system remains wide open and far from finished.
One of the standout holes delivered a monster 113.4-metre intersection grading 1.7 grams per tonne (g/t) gold equivalent from 451m depth, including a higher-grade core of 28m running at 2.7g/t. Within that, Strickland clipped an even richer 7-metre interval going at 6 grams per tonne gold equivalent.
A second hole, which was stepped out along the eastern side of the southern domain, returned an equally impressive 138.8 metres at 1.2g/t gold equivalent from 271.9m, again highlighting the scale of the system. That broad zone also contained a 22.6-metre slice grading 2.6g/t gold equivalent, reinforcing the notion that the higher-grade zones tend to be repeatable features rather than one-offs.
The third hole added further spice by intersecting narrow but punchy high-grade gold, including 2 metres at just under 11g/t gold equivalent from 471m, alongside additional broad mineralised intervals at depth.
The timing of these latest results could hardly be sweeter, landing just as gold prices soared into uncharted territory overnight, hitting all-time highs of US$4690 (A$7012) per ounce. After surging an eye-watering 70 per cent over the past year, the yellow metal is showing no signs of easing off anytime soon.
The latest drilling has returned wide zones of bulk-tonnage style mineralisation in the central part of the deposit, with two additional holes confirming extensions of the known mineralisation on the eastern side of the southern part of the deposit. We are pleased to see that the latest holes have also provided further definition of the higher-grade zones within the deposit, with the results to contribute towards an updated Mineral Resource Estimate for Shanac.
Strickland Metals Managing Director Paul L’Herpiniere
Strickland says the drilling has continued to sharpen the company’s geological understanding of Shanac, which is hosted within a large skarn system associated with intrusive rocks.
The deposit appears to shift vertically and laterally from shallower gold-lead-rich zones into deeper gold-copper mineralisation. This is a classic hallmark of many big magmatic-hydrothermal systems in the area, and hints at plenty more mineralisation yet to be unearthed.
That growth potential is already on show across the company’s wider Rogozna project, which hosts a hefty 8.6 million ounces of gold equivalent spread over four deposits, with Shanac carrying the bulk of the load at an impressive 5.3 million ounces.
With drilling at Shanac wrapped up late last year, the company is now busy digesting the flood of data and preparing its upcoming resource update. More assays are still pending from other holes across the project, setting the stage for continued news flow in the weeks ahead.
Backing it all is a rock-solid balance sheet, with Strickland reporting cash and liquid assets of $41.8 million at the end of September, giving it plenty of firepower to keep the drill bits turning and momentum rolling.
Against a backdrop of strong gold and base metal prices, Strickland looks well placed to turn its Serbian scale story into a genuine market heavyweight as 2026 gathers pace.
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