Rox Resources and Venus Metals report exceptional results from Youanmi drilling
Rox Resources and Venus Metals have unearthed 0.5m at 1,058.49g/t gold at Youanmi.
Junior explorer Rox Resources (ASX: RXL) and joint venture partner Venus Metals Corporation (ASX: VMC) have reported “exceptionally high grade results” from an ongoing drilling campaign near the Youanmi gold project, northeast of Perth.
A drillhole located to the south of the Youanmi plant returned “extremely high gold grades” of 5m at 125.68g/t gold from 0m, including 2m at 311.46g/t gold from 2.5m with plenty of visible gold present in reverse circulation drill chips.
Other results included 1m at 591.89g/t gold from 3m and 0.5m at 1,058.49g/t gold from 3m.
The weathered drill chips suggest the host rock is strongly-altered granite with abundant vein quartz, and Rox has interpreted the gold to be from a primary source rather than from supergene upgrading effects.
The visible gold has presented as nuggets up to 3mm in size which are intergrown with translucent quartz which Rox is interpreting to be vein quartz.
Encouraging results
Rox managing director Alex Passmore said that while the results are early stage, they have been considered “highly encouraging”.
He said a series of follow-up holes would now be drilled to test down dip of the high-grade interval and to the north-west along strike.
Given the shallow nature of the mineralisation encountered, a series of costeans will also be dug across the interpreted strike of mineralisation to assist in geological mapping and provide channel samples for assay.
Resurrecting the mine
The 1.2 million ounce Youanmi gold project is located 480km north-east of Perth in the Youanmi greenstone belt, and has been mothballed since mining ceased in 1997.
The underground workings, processing plant and supporting infrastructure were put on care and maintenance until Venus made moves to purchase the assets and resurrect the mine in 2018.
Last year, a JORC-compliant resource was announced for Youanmi of 12.4Mt grading 2.97g/t gold for just over 1.19Moz.
In April, Rox joined forces with Venus in a “transformational deal” to unlock the potential of the historic mine.
At midday, shares in Rox were up 26.32% to $0.024, while Venus was up 5.26% to $0.20.