Mining

Venus Metals and Rox Resources report strong results from Grace target within Youanmi gold project

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By Imelda Cotton - 
Venus Metals Rox Resources ASX VMC RXL gold extending Grace prospect Youanmi

Results from an ongoing drilling campaign include gold grading up to 191.56 grams per tonne.

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Venus Metals Corporation (ASX: VMC) and Rox Resources (ASX: RXL) have returned “exceptional” results from drilling at the shallow Grace deposit within the Youanmi gold project in Western Australia.

The reverse circulation grade control results confirmed the continuity of significant high-grade granite-hosted gold mineralisation.

They are believed to reconcile well with the resource model and have de-risked the deposit ahead of its future commercialisation.

Highlight assays were: 7m at 35.32 grams per tonne gold from 33m; 5m at 15.23g/t gold from 3m; 5m at 14.29g/t gold from 41m; 6m at 11.85g/t gold from surface; 6m at 10.46g/t gold from 17m; 5m at 11.49g/t gold from 27m; 2m at 22.69g/t gold from 35m; 7m at 6.46g/t gold from 48m; and 8m at 3.47g/t gold from 39m.

The Grace deposit presents a potential opportunity for early open pit mining followed by eventual establishment of a portal at the base of the pit and underground development.

Close to surface

Rox managing director Alex Passmore said drilling had delineated high-grade, free milling mineralisation close to surface adjacent to the historic mining operations.

“As part of planning for the Youanmi project, we are looking at early development and cash flow-generating opportunities including at the Grace area, where mineralisation starts from surface,” he said.

“These results support earlier resource work and indicate a strong likelihood of economic mineralisation in this area.”

Granite-hosted gold

Granite-hosted gold mineralisation occurs at several sites within Youanmi, most notably at the Grace and Plant Zone prospects.

Grace was discovered by Rox in 2019 and is hosted in north-northwest trending conjugate structures, which splay off the northwest-trending Mine Shear.

The mineralised structure consists of a moderately west-dipping shear zone and silica-gold breccia-style veins within sericitised granite occurring in the granite footwall of the Youanmi main lode.

High-grade mineralisation appears within these lodes as north plunging shoots.

Metallurgical testing of oxide and fresh reverse circulation samples from the Grace deposit confirmed recoveries of up to 99.8% through conventional processing methods.