McClure said the Shanac drilling had been designed to better define the high-grade core of the deposit and the results will be fed into ongoing mining studies.

Some 7000m of infill drilling is planned at Shanac to allow the domaining of higher-grade zones in a bid to fully define and elevate a core part of the resource to a level that would justify earliest possible mining studies.

The company has already identified a high-grade core zone between 150m and 450m vertical depth at Shanac, averaging an impressive 14,000 gold equivalent ounces per vertical metre. In some places, it exceeds 20,000 gold equivalent ounces per vertical metre.

Another 3000m of drilling is intended to extend the existing deposit, prioritising prospective northern and north-eastern areas where current drilling is thin or has not yet been shown to have connectivity or continuity. The project’s potential is highlighted by historic high-grade intercepts that include two results from separate holes – 408.9m at 1.4 grams per tonne gold equivalent from 193.8m and 236.4m going 1.8g/t from 125.5m.

Rogozna is a large-scale gold-copper-zinc system in southern Serbia, with more than US$40 million (AU$60.62 million) spent on exploration to date. It lies in the Serbian Cenozoic igneous province within the globally-significant Tethyan metallogenic belt.

The tenure comprises four exploration licences covering about 184 square kilometres and is owned by local company Zlatna Reka Resources – an Ibaera Capital subsidiary.

The project contains a JORC-compliant combined inferred mineral resource totalling 5.44 million ounces of gold equivalent containing 2.96 million ounces gold, 214,000 tonnes of copper and 364,000 tonnes of zinc.

It is also interesting to note that Serbia is one of the world’s most attractive mining countries, with an established mining industry, a long history of large-scale producing assets and many active international mining companies. It is Europe’s second-biggest copper producer.

Strickland remains well-funded, with a hold on some $51.4 million in cash and Northern Star Resources shares as at the end of the March quarter, giving it a solid financial base from which to launch its new exploration mission.

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