Venus Metals and Rox Resources drill Youanmi extensions ahead of gold resource update
Drilling at Sovereign has extended gold mineralisation down dip with a best intercept of 8m at 5.03g/t gold.
Joint venture partners Rox Resources (ASX: RXL) and Venus Metals Corporation (ASX: VMC) continue to drill test extensions of their Youanmi gold project in Western Australia with an updated mineral resource estimate expected this month.
This latest phase involves more than 2,000m of diamond core drilling to test depth extensions to high-grade ore shoots down plunge at Junction and Link.
Step-out drilling will also test Rox’s exploration model with the aim of identifying recurring northwest-plunging ore shoots within southwest-plunging mineralised envelopes.
To date, 14 reverse circulation (RC) and two diamond holes have been drilled at the Link, Junction and Grace targets.
According to Rox, which operates the project with a 70% stake while Venus holds the remaining 30%, the Junction and Link areas continue to show strong potential to enhance and grow the gold resource inventory near the mine.
“The economic prospects of the Youanmi resource are considered strong being close to existing underground development,” it stated.
The company today reported an additional diamond rig will soon join the diamond and reverse circulation drill rigs already operating on site.
Rox managing director Alex Passmore said the company is keenly awaiting results of the ongoing diamond drilling program.
“The activity levels at Youanmi have continually ramped up through the year with the company’s exploration model delivering exceptional results at Junction.”
“The company’s drilling results and re-interpretation work that has been undertaken since acquiring its interest in the Youanmi gold project have been incorporated into a new mineral resource estimate which is in the final stages of validation and which we look forward to releasing in the short term,” he added.
Near-mine gold resource
The Junction target area and Youanmi underground mine are separated by the late-stage post mineralisation east-west striking Main Pit fault that offsets the ore zones by about 30m.
North of the Main Pit fault, within the mine mineralised envelope, the Youanmi underground development extends to 600m deep and known high-grade resources continue to about 950m below surface.
The Junction area is immediately south of the Main Pit fault within the Pollard mineralised envelope. Rox believes the Pollard mineralised envelope will continue to similar depths seen in the mine mineralised envelope and has strong potential to host recurring northwest plunging ore shoots similar to the known mineralised envelopes at the Youanmi mine.
The Grace target is a strongly mineralised north-south trending conjugate structure that splays from the northwest-trending mine shear.
The Link target area is situated within the northern mineralised envelope that hosts the high-grade United North, Kathleen and Rebel-Kurrajong open pits and Hill End underground mine.