Joint venture partners Venus Metals and Rox Resources have hit bonanza-grade results from an RC hole sunk into their Youanmi South prospect including a 3m intercept at almost five ounces per tonne gold from 218m.
The outstanding 138.7 g/t gold hit was contained in a wider 28m segment grading more than an ounce per tonne at 34.81 g/t gold from 204m and includes an 18m section going 51.96 g/t gold from 207m and 10m at 79.55 g/t gold from 211m.
Management says the true widths of the discovery are currently unconstrained with follow up drilling to commence to determine the orientation and dip direction of the discovery.
Youanmi South sits south-east of the Youanmi Main Lode about 480km north-east of Perth and consists of an area of largely untested mafic volcanic rocks. The latest impressive results come from a long and ongoing drill campaign that includes resource and exploration drilling with both RC and diamond drilling rigs. So far, 4726 RC metres and 1708 diamond metres have been punched out from a planned 16,000 metre RC and 7000 metre diamond drilling program scheduled to run until April.
The bonanza assays at Youanmi South follow significant results from the joint venture’s drill program at its Midway prospect earlier this week that include figures of 6.76m at 15.4 g/t gold from 169.1m in addition to 3.73m at 10.25 g/t gold from 405.8m. Midway has an interpreted strike length of more than 1000m, of which only 100m has been drill tested to date.
Venus and Rox joined forces to acquire the Youanmi gold mine from Oz Youanmi in April 2019, with Rox having the ability to raise its share in the JV from an initial 50 per cent to 70 per cent, which it has since achieved. Rox manages the project and it is one of several operations the two companies share in the Youanmi shear zone.
Youanmi sits in the central part of the Youanmi greenstone belt, within the Southern Cross province of the Archean Yilgarn Craton. Neighbouring mines include Agnew with its two million ounces, Golden Grove holding one million ounces and Kirkalock containing one million ounces.
The mine itself boasts historical production stretching from 1918 through to 1997, for a total of 667,000 ounces going 5.42 g/t gold from both open-pit and underground operations. Its total resource currently stands just under 30 million tonnes grading 3.57 g/t for 3.2 million ounces of contained gold.
An additional drill rig is being mobilised to site this month to accelerate the current drill program. The joint venture plans to focus on resource infill drilling to upgrade the inferred resource to indicated in addition to targeting the near mine exploration structures including the Midway, Youanmi South and Midway South structures.
If the joint venture partners are able to replicate the bonanza figures from the latest drill results with its ongoing program, the Youanmi project has the potential to become a major source of gold in the near future.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
