Venus Metals Corporation has returned a swag of high-grade drill hits from its Youanmi gold project in WA. A relentless drilling campaign over the resurgent project continues to deliver an abundance of gold hits including 12 metres at 6.54 grams per tonne gold from only 28m and 2m at 11.81 g/t gold from 53m down-hole at the new the Link discovery.
The Youanmi gold project is a joint venture, or “JV” between Venus and Rox Resources, with Rox managing the exploration and development of the project and holding 70 per cent of the partnership. The ongoing exploration program is aimed at delineating a plethora of new discoveries across the resurgent mining area and building the JV’s inventory of gold resources in the region.
Recent exploration by the JV has included the discovery of two new targets at Link and Junction prospects within the historical mining area, ongoing drilling of the Grace discovery adjacent to the plant site and the completion of initial reconnaissance aircore drilling across the Youanmi granite, north of plant site.
Rox Resources Managing Director, Alex Passmore said:“We are pleased to report strong results from our comprehensive program undertaken late in 2020 demonstrating the endowment of the Youanmi gold project. Additionally, we look forward to commencing testing of our two new compelling near mine targets in late January or early February.”
The Youanmi gold project is located 480km north of Perth in the northern Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia and covers a strategic position across the Youanmi greenstone belt. The JV’s tenure stretches over more than 350 square kilometres of the gold-bearing terrane, which has produced over 667,000 ounces of gold since the yellow metal was first discovered in the region more than 100 years ago.
Modern exploration across the region has given rise to a rash of new discoveries including Spectrum Metals’ delineation of the deeper extensions to the high-grade Penny West gold deposit south of the Youanmi mine in 2019. The Penny West discovery was quickly followed up by Rox locking onto the Grace gold prospect, adjacent to the Youanmi mill, with ongoing exploration uncovering a string of new prospects including the Junction and Link targets within the historical open pit mining area, and the Currans Well discoveries north of Penny West.
The JV’s current drilling program has focused on the definition of the Grace discovery with both shallow reverse circulation, or “RC” drilling and deeper diamond drilling being undertaken across the gold-rich prospect. Better RC results from Grace include 12m at 1.72 g/t gold from only 28m and 3m at 9.6 g/t gold from 196m down-hole. Diamond drilling also continues to deliver the goods from Grace, returning 1m at 18.62 g/t gold from 202m down-hole. The sampling of a further 12 RC holes is still in the laboratory awaiting assay.
Elsewhere at Youanmi, ongoing geophysical surveying and drilling has continued to unearth a catalogue of targets for deeper drill testing, including the Junction target south of the main Youanmi open pit. The Rebel, United North, Granite and Bunker targets, all north of the plant site, are also shaping up with assays including 4m at 15.95 g/t gold from only 36m down-hole at Granite and 8m at 1.35 g/t gold from 32m down-hole at Bunker.
The Link target is also showing promise, with first-pass drilling bagging the aforementioned high-grade results, while wide-spaced regional aircore drilling across the Youanmi Granite has highlighted several intriguing near-surface targets for follow up drilling in 2021.
Youanmi already boasts a resource of over 1.2 million ounces of gold and with drilling continuing to uncover new gold targets and discoveries, Venus and Rox can look forward to a busy year ahead.
With samples already in the lab and drill rigs due back on the ground in the coming weeks, there will undoubtedly no shortage of news flow from Youanmi, as the gold price once again begins testing US$2,000 an ounce and the JV charges headlong into 2021.
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By Matt Birney
