ASX-listed explorer, Venus Metals says latest drill hits have extended the known area of high-grade gold mineralisation at the exciting Grace discovery at its joint-ventured Youanmi gold project in Western Australia by 100 metres to the south. Stand-out RC drill intersections received for three of 18 recently completed holes were 8m at an average grade of 19.9 grams per tonne gold from 68m including 4m at 38.3 g/t from 68m, and 4m going 5 g/t from 40m.
Part of the Youanmi joint venture’s current drilling program at the project has been designed to test the interpreted along-strike southern continuation of Grace to see where the Grace auriferous structure transects the granite-greenstone contact, which it describes as highly favourable for localised high-grade ore formations.
According to the JV, the Grace auriferous structure splays off the north-west-trending Youanmi mine shear zone and appears to increase in grade with closer proximity to the mine shear.
Following its drilling campaign last year, the JV carried out a reinterpretation of structural controls on mineralisation at Youanmi involving its drilling results, structural relogging of historical diamond core and an audit of historical mining data culminating in “under-explored” high-priority targets being identified.
According to Venus, the southern extent of the Grace structure and the structure at depth have emerged as compelling targets.
Venus says the southern part of the Grace structure likely intersects the Youanmi mine shear zone below and south of the historically mined Pollard lodes. The lodes were principally mined in the 1930s, with historical mine records indicating production of 260,000 ounces of gold from ore that went a mined grade of 15 grams per tonne.
The recently identified high-priority targets include the nearby Link and Junction prospects, the latter which returned notable intercepts of 4m grading 6 g/t from 84m and 8m at 4.1 g/t from 112m in the latest round of RC drilling.
The JV says current drilling has been focused on delineating and extending shallow high-grade shoots in the old Youanmi mine area, while results from the RC program will be used to help refine deeper down-plunge targets for drill testing by an upcoming diamond core drilling program.
Venus says Link and Junction represent the intersection zones between north‐south-trending structures and the all-important north-west-trending mine shear zone.
The Junction target lies in the area where the Grace lode and mine lode converge at depth beneath both the Youanmi main pit and historically mined high-grade Pollard lodes.
According to the JV, Junction was not previously tested by past explorers and there appears to have been no effective historical drilling completed at depth, down plunge of mineralisation seen in the Pollard lodes.
The JV says the current and follow-up drilling in near-mine and resource extension areas will feed into a mineral resource estimate and a subsequent definitive feasibility study on a possible Youanmi project development.
The Youanmi project near Mount Magnet and approximately 80 kilometres south-south-west of Sandstone is 70 per cent owned and operated by Rox Resources and 30 per cent held by Venus.
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