Venus looks to gold and nickel in Eastern Goldfields

Venus Metals has lodged two interesting looking tenement applications on the south-western shore of Lake Ballard to be known as the Henderson gold-nickel project, located 50 kilometres northwest of Menzies in WA. The tenements fall within the Mt Ida greenstone belt, which is host to some significant projects including Mt Ida and Davyhurst, where gold’s renewed interest is breathing new life into those projects.   

Davyhurst hosts a mothballed 1.2 million tonne per annum processing plant where ASX-listed Ora Banda Mining is sitting on about 141,000 ounces of gold grading an impressive 13.8 grams per tonne gold at Mt Ida, which is one of Ora Banda’s five major project centres along the Ida Fault Zone. 

Ora Banda has a combined global mineral resource inventory of 21.0Mt grading 2.6g/t for 1.8M ounces. 

One of the tenements Venus has applied for comprises 70 blocks, or about 21,700 hectares and is a 90/10 JV with a 10% free carried interest by a prospector. 

Of note is two major fault zones known as the Ballard Fault in the east and the Ida Fault in the west, both of which run through Venus’ land. 

These big fault zones are highly sought after geological settings where masses of rock have been deformed over millions of years, creating “cracks” that can be filled by mineralising fluids. If conditions are just right, these fluids may drop out gold or other metals. 

Venus has committed to a minimum 3,000 metres of augur or air core drilling within 12 months of the grant of the JV tenement and the prospector can convert his or her 10% into a 1% net smelter royalty at the “mining stage”. 

Venus has previously successfully deployed a strategy of breathing life into well recognized historical mining centres that have been sitting idle for decades and this project looks to be no exception with a swag of historical mining centres in the general region including a historical mine known as Hilltop located within one of the lease applications. 

Other major mining areas in the region are Riverina, First Hit, Mulline, Mt Morley, Emerald, Bottle Creek. 

The company now has plenty of time on its hands to sift through the mountains of historical exploration data for the region, a strategy that has been proving to be quite lucrative for some of late. Venus said it appears as if previous explorers have only scratched the surface and the region is prospective for both gold and nickel.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact : matt.birney@businessnews.com.au