Venus Metals Corporation and joint venture partner Rox Resources have grown resources at their Youanmi gold project near Mt Magnet in Western Australia’s Murchison district by a whopping 39 per cent. Nearly 1.7 million ounces have now been defined with 800,000 ounces near surface and a further 856,000 high-grade ounces at depth. Resource drilling continues with a feasibility study on the cards.
Junior partner Venus surged more than 8 per cent on the market early today on the news, taking its market capitalisation to $28.7 million.
Rox, which is operator and has 70 per cent of Youanmi, is funding all of Venus' ongoing exploration costs up to any decision to mine by way of a limited-recourse interest-free loan to Venus. The loan is secured against Venus’ 30 per cent stake in the JV and can only be repaid from proceeds of a sale of Youanmi JV assets.
Venus also retains a 0.7 per cent net smelter royalty on gold and other minerals produced from the JV tenements.
The new Youanmi resource estimate comes on the back of about 48,000 metres of drilling since mid-2019.
Seven shallow mineralised areas combine for 14.7 million tonnes at 1.69 grams per tonne gold for 800,000 ounces, a 50 per cent increase on previous estimates from 2018.
A maiden resource of 109,000 ounces at a whopping 6.95 g/t gold has been defined at the shallow Grace discovery near the old Youanmi mine.
At depth the resource has grown by 30 per cent to 3.38Mt at an eye-catching 7.89 g/t gold for 856,000 ounces.
A 52 per cent increase in the indicated category and a 31 per cent increase in the inferred category was reported for the combined resources.
Cut-off grades remained unchanged with 4 g/t per tonne gold at depth and 0.5 g/t gold near-surface. A 1.5 g/t cut-off was applied for Grace.
Rox says the discovery cost for the newly added ounces comes in at a modest $16 per ounce, well below industry average.
Managing Director of Rox Resources, Alex Passmore said: “The release of the updated Youanmi resource … demonstrates the strong potential to continue to grow high-grade gold resources at the Youanmi deposit.”
Near-mine exploration continues as the joint venture looks to drill out resource extensions and convert inferred resources to the indicated category.
Studies evaluating production options including metallurgical testwork, processing plant design and pit optimisation have also been launched.
The studies will feed into a feasibility study forecast for completion next year.
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By Matt Birney
