Venus Metals Corporation and joint venture partner, Rox Resources continue to deliver the goods at their Youanmi gold project in the Murchison district of Western Australia, with latest drilling at the Link prospect striking more gold, including a bumper 7.25m intercept going 15.02 grams per tonne gold. The duo is looking to uncover more ounces to add to the already impressive 1.66-million-ounce resource at the project.
Rox management says the high-grade 7.25m intercept from 315.8m, one of the best hits recorded at Link, extends a zone of high-grade gold mineralisation located more than 120m from the existing resources in the northern end of the mineralised envelope at Youanmi.
Curiously, the new high-grade hit lies some 80m down plunge of another exciting recent intercept at Link that delivered 6.8m at 11.98 g/t gold from 264m, including 2m at 37.65 g/t gold from 269m and 4.9m at 6.51g/t gold from 250m.
The high-grade results come on the back of a step-out drilling campaign at the prospect.
The partners have also been conducting closer spaced resource extension drilling looking to define indicated resources some 40m away from the existing resource at Link.
New results include 12m at 4.46 g/t gold from 184m, 7m at 3.56 g/t gold from 234m and 4m at 6.24 g/t gold from 239m.
Rox management says the strong gold hits are likely to grow the tonnes and grade of indicated resources at the prospect, with Link remaining open down plunge to the north and up dip to the south.
Rox Resources Managing Director, Alex Passmore said:“It is pleasing that we continue to get excellent drilling results from the current program at Youanmi. These results at the Link prospect come from well outside the existing resource envelope, but importantly demonstrate the downward continuity of existing ore zones adding further confidence to the potential for resource additions in this key area of focus that is located in close proximity to existing underground workings.”
The historical Youanmi mine produced 667,000 ounces of gold at 5.47 g/t gold from multiple open pits and underground mines until its closure in the 1990s.
Venus and Rox recently delivered a resource estimate on the back of about 48,000m of drilling conducted at the project through to March this year.
The estimate returned 3.38 million tonnes going 7.89 g/t gold for 856,000 ounces of the precious yellow metal at depth, with another 14.7Mt at 1.69 g/t gold for 800,000 ounces from seven mineralised areas closer to surface.
Drilling conducted since March, results of which are not included in the current resource estimate, is focusing on resource extension and conversion of inferred resources to the higher indicated category at Link, together with the Junction prospect located in the southern end of the Youanmi mineralised envelope.
The partners have been steadily reporting significant gold intercepts from the ongoing drilling at Link and Junction, including a recent eye-catching hit at a previously untested hanging wall zone at Junction that delivered 4m at 45.5 g/t gold from 341m.
Other solid recent hits from Junction include 16m at 4.22g/t gold from 56m and 3m at 15.17g/t gold from 108m.
Results from another nine reverse circulation holes and 10 diamond holes from the drilling campaign remain pending.
The mineralisation being intercepted at Link and Junction will be incorporated into future resource estimates.
Rox, who is operator and has 70 per cent of Youanmi, is funding all of Venus' ongoing exploration costs up to any decision to mine through a limited-recourse interest-free loan to Venus. The loan is secured against Venus’ 30 per cent stake in the joint venture and can only be repaid from proceeds of a sale of Youanmi joint venture assets.
Rox and Venus have also teamed up in a 50-50 joint venture over regional targets in the Youanmi region. Assays from some 15,000m of an ongoing 22,000m regional air-core campaign are also pending.
The gold hits at Youanmi keep flowing in for Venus and Rox and with the drill rigs continuing to pepper the project and its regional surrounds, the Perth-based explorers could be set for a stellar end to the year.
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