Venus Metals and Rox Resources have continued to put meat on the bones of the exciting Grace discovery at the Youanmi gold project south of Sandstone, with more high-grade hits rolling off the drill bit. The JV partners are not quite at the halfway mark of a 126-hole, 16,000m RC drilling campaign, which is focused on Grace, underlining the importance the partners places on that prospect.
Notable intersections from the latest drilling are 2m grading 12.31 grams per tonne gold from 195m, 24m at 1.04 g/t from 145m and 4m at 5.01 g/t from 173m within a broader mineralised zone of 25m grading 2.39 g/t from 173m.
The JV partners say it appears mineralisation at Grace continues down-dip from the bonanza hit of 25m going a whopping 34.79 g/t from 143m returned last month and, based on the latest drilling, may increase in width at depth.
At Grace North, a new shallow, high-grade mineralised zone about 100m to the north of the previously reported main zones at Grace suggests the possible continuation of mineralisation. Best results from the recent drilling were 1m at 63.68 g/t from 49m and 3m at 10.27 g/t from 19m. The companies say the mineralisation is still open along strike and down plunge and is being targeted by the current RC program.
Venus and Rox have now delineated a mineralised corridor within the Youanmi granite near the greenstone contact that is now up to 1.5km to the north of the historical mine infrastructure and along a strike length of 2.5km.
The discovery of what looks to be free milling gold in the granite is challenging the traditional view of the Youanmi area as hosting mostly the more difficult-to-treat refractory or sulphide ore for which it is historically recognised.
An investor presentation by Rox put out this month points out that the strong zones of gold mineralisation in the Youanmi granite opens up the companies’ tenure to vast tracks of unexplored ground that was previously ignored because it covers the granite rather than the greenstone.
Commenting on behalf of the JV, Rox Managing Director, Alex Passmore said: “Grace continues to deliver impressive, high-grade results. I am particularly excited by the extent of mineralisation encountered in drill hole RXRC292 which demonstrates that not only does Grace carry very high gold grades, with 49m of mineralisation intersected there is potential for significant tonnages to be delineated.”
Venus and Rox have now expanded the scope of a planned diamond drilling program designed to increase their understanding of Grace’s geology in order to target mineralisation at depth.
Rox’ investor presentation concludes that in the wake of the discovery of the Grace prospect, “the Youanmi gold project potentially offers a path to production via a high-grade small starter project followed by a larger longer life milling operation”.
Sounds familiar. Like a swag of other emerging gold companies, Venus and Rox hope to ease into production with a low CAPEX option that will see the JV spit out enough cash flow to at least partly fund a bigger-scale development.
With the gold price soaring towards US$2,000 an ounce, the partners may yet find themselves writing a new chapter in Youanmi’s gold production history.
Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
