Venus Metals and Rox Resources start reverse circulation drilling at Youanmi gold targets
Venus Metals has secured an option to buy Youanmi gold mine and tenements in WA.
A reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign has kicked off at prospects within the Youanmi gold project in Western Australia, jointly-owned by Venus Metals Corporation (ASX: VMC) and Rox Resources (ASX: RXL).
Drilling will focus on the Youanmi North, Sovereign and Taylor’s Reef targets for a total 2,200m and is expected to be completed within two weeks.
Youanmi North is located at the granite-greenstone contact along the Youanmi shear zone north of the Youanmi gold mine, where a recent detailed ground magnetic survey identified structural targets.
Two of these targets are broadly associated with anomalous gold intersections in historical drill holes, and with a north-trending gold anomaly in historical soil data which extends into granite terrain.
The recent discovery of high-grade gold mineralisation in granite at the Grace prospect, some 7km to the south-southwest of Youanmi North, has made the identified geochemical trend and associated structures a “compelling drill target” for the joint venture.
Drilling at the Sovereign prospect will follow up on high-grade gold results from air core and RC holes reported in September.
Best results of that campaign were 8m at 5.03 grams per tonne gold from 160m, including 2m at 15.83g/t from 160m and 3m at 2.86g/t from 165m.
The project partners have confirmed Sovereign’s gold grades are increasing with depth and are hosted in multiple lodes.
They hope to explore for potential extensions of high-grade gold mineralisation down-dip and along a newly-defined north-east target trend similar to the orientation of high-grade gold reefs at the Currans North and Red White and Blue prospects, which also sit within the Youanmi project.
Taylor’s Reef drilling will test down-dip and along-strike extensions of high-grade mineralisation also discovered in September, where best results were: 3m at 19.58g/t gold from 21m including 1m at 55.81g/t from 23m; 3m at 14.3g/t from 73m including 1m at 19.86g/t from 74m; and 2m at 6.67g/t gold from 57m including 1m at 12.27g/t from 58m.
The discoveries have been interpreted as a continuation of high‐grade gold lodes at Currans North, offset by a north‐northeast trending fault.
Widespread gold anomalies in laterite to the southwest of Taylor’s Reef form a northeast‐trending target zone measuring approximately 900m in length for further drilling and evaluation.