Venus Metals is on a roll with the first drill campaign at its Deep South prospect within its Youanmi project in WA’s Murchison hitting lithium paydirt with a stellar 24m intersection grading as high as 1.71 per cent lithium right from surface. High-grade lithium pegmatites were intersected at both the East and North zones, with strong tantalum enrichment also recorded.
The exploratory RC drill programme at the project that lies about 450kms north east of Perth tested areas with outcropping lithium-rich pegmatites and distinct soil geochemical anomalies where there was only shallow soil cover. Previous rock chip samples from the associated pegmatites provided solid results, with up to 4.6 per cent lithium oxide uncovered in both the East and North zones, with the Central zone producing up to 4.5 per cent lithium oxide.
Phase-one drilling at Deep South was completed in February and consisted of 26 RC holes for a total of 2250m drilled.
Significant intersections of high-grade lithium pegmatites were discovered starting from surface or from very shallow depths.
Included in the 24m hit going 1.71 per cent from the East Zone is 14m section grading an impressive 2.54 per cent from surface.
Another 15m hit came in at 1.34 per cent and included 8m at 2.19 per cent from surface and a further 7m intersection graded 1.54 per cent lithium oxide and included 3m at 2.89 per cent from 1m down hole.
High-grade lithium pegmatites intersected at the North zone include 2m at 4.09 per cent from surface and 3m at 1.89 per cent, including a 1m slice at 4.06 per cent lithium oxide from 16m. The lithium pegmatites are also strongly enriched in tantalum, recording up to 1439 parts per million.
The drilling results confirm the East zone as a significant lithium exploration target that is open along strike. Modelling of exploration results points to a gentle northerly plunge for the high-grade mineralisation, presenting well defined targets for the phase-two follow-up drilling program.
Venus Metals managing director Matt Hogan said: “These high-grade results from our maiden drilling campaign at Deep South Lithium Prospect pave the way for future exploration at this exciting prospect. With much of the observed mineralisation open along strike, we look forward to pursuing follow up drilling to define the scale of the opportunity at Deep South.”
Management says the positive phase-one drilling results give it the confidence to potentially chase other regional deposits in the area that may be lurking under cover with no outcropping pegmatites.
A regional programme of shallow auger drilling and infill soil sampling will test for subtle soil geochemical anomalies identified in previous geochemical surveys over poorly outcropping areas bordering the Deep South soil geochemical anomaly.
An extensive follow-up exploration program is now planned that will include both RC and diamond-drilling.
Venus says high lithium grades at Deep South are associated with coarse-grained petalite, a rare high-purity lithium mineral similar in composition to spodumene and known to contain fewer impurities than the more-commonly found lithium mineral.
Petalite is known to occur with spodumene in other lithium deposits to the south, for example at Covalent Lithium’s giant Mt Holland lithium project that contains an estimated mineral resource of 189 million tonnes of lithium oxide at 1.5 per cent.
Deep South sits about 44km south of the Youanmi gold mine and to the west of a slew of significant lithium projects such as Mt Holland, Mineral Resources’ Mount Marion mine that has a resource of 66.1 million tonnes going 1.37 per cent lithium oxide and the producing Bald Hill mine, which has an annual production capacity of about 150,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate at 5.5 per cent.
Venus has a range of other promising projects in its saddle bag too, including its Bridgetown Greenbushes lithium-nickel-copper and PGE play. Giant battery metals hunter IGO has a farm-in and joint venture (JV) agreement with Venus to acquire up to a 70 per cent interest in the project by spending $6 million and sole-funding all expenditure until the completion of a prefeasibility study (PFS).
Similarly, Venus’ Henderson nickel-lithium project has farm-in and JV agreements with IGO for the latter to acquire up to a 70 per cent interest by incurring $4 million in expenditure and reimbursing Venus $1million. IGO is to sole-fund all JV expenditure until the completion of a PFS.
Venus is also the biggest shareholder in Rox Resources, holding about 55 million shares worth about $10 million. Hogan is also a director of Rox, a gold company that has its main focus on the Youanmi gold project that hosts a global mineral resource of 16.2 million tonnes at 4.4g/t gold for 2.3 million ounces.
Venus has positioned itself well with ongoing exposure to gold at a time when the gold price is touching all-time highs and now a significant lithium discovery to take advantage of the inevitable third lithium boom when it comes.
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By Craig Nolan
