Strickland discovery fires up a $55m growth push in Serbia
Brought to you by BULLS AND BEARS
Rowena Duckworth
Strickland Metals sparked its Rogozna project in Serbia with a new high-grade gold-copper discovery and immediately filled its war chest with a $55 million capital raise to accelerate drilling and development.
The one-two punch signals a clear shift from discovery mode to development intent; Drilling success is now matched by the financing firepower to fuel growth.
The discovery was made at the company’s Red Creek mine, approximately 1 km west of the 5.3 million ounce gold equivalent Shanac deposit. Initial drilling intersected both shallow epithermal gold mineralization and deeper skarn-hosted gold and base metal zones; this is a geological mixture that reflects other important deposits in the Rogozna system.
The prominent exploration hole yielded multiple zones of mineralisation, including an impressive 4.0m run at 4.0 grams per tonne (g/t) gold equivalent from 44.0m and a deeper interval of 53.0m at 2.3g/t gold equivalent from 514.4m.
In this deeper 53m zone, the drill bit ejected a 35m wide, higher grade core operating 3.1g/t gold equivalent; this included a 4.4-metre thick slice grading stellar equivalent at 8.9 g/t gold equivalent from 522.0 m, followed by another 5.8 meter spaced heavy slice from 536.7 m grading 4.5 g/t gold equivalent.
Importantly, Red Creek lies along strike for approximately 1.5 km on the same structure that hosts the Copper Canyon deposit, opening a new exploration field corridor between Copper Canyon and Shanac that has seen little drilling to date. Mineralization at Red Creek remains open along strike and at depth, and analysis from several additional wells is awaited.
Strickland managing director Paul L’Herpiniere said: “Our world-class team in Serbia has done it again, delivering a new, high-grade discovery by drilling exploration at Red Creek, just 1 km from our cornerstone Shanac Deposit. This is an exciting development that reinforces the highly endowed nature of the mineral system at Rogozna and offers an exciting new focus for resource growth..”
Immediately following the discovery, Strickland moved to lock in financing by announcing a $55 million corporate placement at a price of 16 cents per share. The increase will fund an additional 70,000 million drilling at Rogozna in 2026 and support the submission of a pre-feasibility study targeted for the first half of 2027.
Supporting the story is heavy support. Global mining giant Zijin Mining Group has committed $5 million to the position, increasing its stake in Strickland to four percent. The approval from one of the world’s largest copper and gold producers adds significant credibility to Rogozna’s development path and underlines the strategic attractiveness of the project as drilling success continues to increase.
Strickland’s $55 million financing package will finance one of the most aggressive exploration campaigns ever undertaken in the Balkans, with a massive 70,000 million meter drilling program planned in Rogozna throughout this year. Drilling will serve the dual purpose of tightening and developing resources at Shanac, Gradina and Copper Canyon, while also tracking growth at the new Red Creek discovery and testing new targets across the broader system.
Crucially, the scale and structure of the program is designed to accelerate Rogozna towards development, feeding directly into an internal scoping study in the first half of this year and a full pre-feasibility study targeted for the first half of 2027. This will provide Strickland with the first detailed economic picture of Rogozna, including costs, production profiles and project returns; the kind of milestone that often unlocks institutional support and strategic attention if the geology is accumulating.
With gold hot, copper tight, and a $55 million war chest locked away, Strickland now has both the discoveries and the firepower to challenge Rogozna.
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