Venus Metals has encountered platinum group element, copper and nickel mineralisation at its Youanmi project in WA after probing a promising electromagnetic conductor. A seven hole, 734 metre drilling program has extended the mineralisation at the project with a 7m intersection going 0.85 grams per tonne platinum, palladium plus gold from 124m. The 7m hit also included a high-grade interval of 2m at 1.44 g/t platinum, palladium plus gold.
Included in the 7m intersection was a splattering of copper at 0.022 per cent and 0.35 per cent nickel from 126m.
The next best result from the campaign that targeted magmatic palladium, platinum, gold, copper and nickel mineralisation was 6m grading 0.76 g/t platinum, palladium and gold with 0.031 per cent copper and 0.36 per cent nickel from 30m.
Venus MD, Matthew Hogan said:
“This is a very exciting PGE play in a significant mafic‐ultramafic intrusion with promising sulphide mineralization results. We are engaging a petrology expert so to better understand the mineralization at Vidure which will assist with targeting the next phase of drilling”.
Other notable intersections in the latest campaign were 5m at 0.68 g/t platinum, palladium plus gold including 0.17 per cent copper and 0.23 per cent nickel from 48m. Some of the longer intersections were 3m at 0.83 g/t platinum, palladium plus gold with 0.14 per cent copper and 0.23 per cent nickel from 81m.
Interestingly, the company says mineralisation remains open at depth and along strike, giving it plenty of opportunity to get onto some grade.
Venus’ Youanmi project sits within the southern Youanmi igneous complex. The area has historically been found to host significant concentrations of copper, nickel and PGE.
Previous drilling by Venus at the Vidure prospect intersected several encouraging results too including a 38m hit at 0.78 g/t palladium and platinum from 20m.
In July, the company followed up the 38m result with a campaign aimed at testing a geological model that interpreted PGE mineralisation as a west dipping mineralised zone intersecting a number of PGE, gold, copper and nickel occurrences. Venus then launched the recently completed seven-hole campaign to test the depth and strike of the PGE mineralisation.
The company will now conduct a petrological analysis on the recent sulphide heavy samples amidst planning of a new drilling campaign to test for PGE, copper and nickel mineralisation at depth.
The gold and base metals explorer is also planning downhole electromagnetic surveys to test sulphide mineralisation associated with the PGE, nickel and copper hits which may have gone undetected in ground geophysical surveys.
It is encouraging that Venus has hit sulphides in this– that it contains such a wide cocktail of minerals - including platinum group elements – is even more encouraging and the company just needs to narrow in on some grade now to put Vidure well and truly on the map.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
