ASX-listed dynamic duo Venus Metals and Rox Resources are at it again, this time at the Sovereign discovery within their historic Youanmi gold project in WA’s Murchison region. The Sovereign target continues to throw up some solid numbers including 10m going 3.64 grams per tonne gold from 79m. Venus recently finished three RC holes at Sovereign for a total of 530m to verify previous aircore results and test the bedrock potential beneath intercepts the aircore drilling enocuntered.
The 10m intersection also had a 2m high-grade section going 10.64 g/t gold from 82m and other notable intersections were 7m grading 3.97 g/t from 59m including 1m at 8.19 g/t from 64m and 4m at 2.68 g/t from 116m including 1m at 5.43g/t Au from 118m.
The Sovereign prospect is located north of the historic Penny West gold mine that saw its owner, Spectrum Metals, taken out for about $200 million by gold miner Ramelius Resources earlier this year after Spectrum discovered what looks like an offset of Penny West hiding in plain sight just 300m to the north.
Last year Venus and Rox went chasing Penny West lookalikes in the region by way of an aircore drilling program that turned up some good numbers including 4m at 7.02 g/t from 24m and 5m at 2.41 g/t Au from 60m.
Immediate follow-up RC drilling last year saw a best intercept of 3m at 6.61 g/t gold from 78m including 1m at 11.61 g/t from 79m, confirming the presence of significant gold mineralisation encountered in the earlier reconnaissance work.
According to Venus, the newly discovered gold mineralisation at Sovereign is associated with quartz veining and is still open at depth and along strike. The continuation of gold mineralisation at depth “is highly encouraging”, it says, and further RC drilling is planned.
With the exploration successes Venus and Rox have racked up to date, the Perth-based companies appear to be reshaping perspectives of the old Youanmi gold mining region and its surrounding areas.
The partners appear to be challenging the traditional view of the area as hosting a lot of the more difficult to treat refractory or sulphide gold ore with their Sovereign prospect harbouring easier to mine free milling ore.
The market appears to have warmed to the expanding Sovereign discovery after the gold price broke through a whopping A$2,700 an ounce in the past 24 hours, pushing Venus’s shares up by more than 7 per cent during trading today.
Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
