Venus Metals Corporation continues to uncover fresh precious metal targets across the Youanmi terrane in Western Australia. An ongoing evaluation of the company’s comprehensive geophysical and geochemical datasets has highlighted a trio of platinum group element, or “PGE” prospects in the southern Youanmi tenement area, with historical drilling returning assays of up to 2.18 grams per tonne platinum and palladium.
The company’s assessment of the Youanmi Igneous Complex, which underlies much of the project area, has identified a suite of mafic-ultramafic intrusions in the area surrounding Currans Find, which appear to host nickel-copper-PGE sulphide mineralisation. The company says new PGE targets show marked geological similarities to Chalice Mining’s celebrated Julimar discovery, which was made in early 2020, just to the north-east of Perth.
Venus Metals’ new PGE prospects include the Malbec-Sauvignon, Vidure and Vidure South prospects where previous wide-spaced drilling has defined enriched-PGE horizons in the near-surface weathered rock. Intriguingly, the mineralisation extends across the fresh rock interface and into the unweathered mafic-ultramafic stratigraphy indicating a primary source for the PGEs.
Better drill intercepts from the prospects include 12 metres at 1.32 g/t platinum and palladium, 0.20 per cent copper and 0.37 per cent nickel from 45m depth at Vidure. Deeper drilling at Malbec returned 7m @ 1.44 g/t platinum and palladium, 0.97 per cent nickel and 0.49 per cent copper from 129m down-hole.
The continuation of the PGE mineralisation into fresh rock at Youanmi hints at the deeper potential of the intrusive system. Encouragingly, it also aligns with observations from the Julimar discovery which includes the presence of precious metals along the contact between the ultramafic and gabbroic units within the intrusive rock units.
Venus’ Youanmi project is located 480 kilometres north of Perth in the northern Yilgarn Craton of WA. The company’s tenure covers a strategic position across the resurgent Youanmi greenstone belt and is held within a joint venture between Venus and Rox Resources.
Venus and Rox Resources tenure stretches over more than 350 square kilometres of the gold and base-metal rich stratigraphy, with mining in the region having produced over 667,000 ounces of gold since the precious metal was first discovered in the region more than 100 years ago. However, the region also hosts a number of base and specialty metal discoveries including the Pincher Well zinc deposits and Curran’s Well nickel-copper prospects, both of which lie to the south-west of the company’s mothballed Youanmi gold mine.
The effective use of modern exploration techniques across the Youanmi terrane has given rise to a rash of new discoveries including the high-grade Penny West Deeps gold deposit, the Grace gold prospect adjacent to the Youanmi mill, the Junction and Link targets within the historical open pit mining area and the Currans Well discoveries just to the north of Penny West.
Venus is now aiming to further capitalise on its experience and expertise at Youanmi and is planning a detailed program of geophysics across its Malbec-Sauvignon and Vidure prospects. It is continuing to look at defining deeper nickel-copper-PGE targets for drilling testing in the coming months, as the company continues its tour-de-force across the rich mineral fields of Western Australia.
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