Venus Metals and Rox Resources have struck high grade gold in RC drilling that followed-up an exciting aircore discovery at their Venus JV project in the Youanmi region of WA. The new drilling has confirmed the previous aircore results with 3 metres grading 6.61 grams per tonne gold from 78m downhole that includes a higher grade zone of one meter grading nearly 12g/t gold. New aircore drilling, 50m south from the now defined mineralisation, showed an 8m wide, near-surface zone, grading 1.92g/t gold.
The initial discovery aircore program was completed earlier this year across a magnetic feature that extends some distance from the Penny West gold deposit. Those early results hit a sweet spot with 4m grading 7.02g/t from 24m and 5m grading 2.41 g/t gold from 60m downhole.
The recent follow up drilling only consisted of three RC holes, which means there is still a significant amount of exploration to be carried out at this new prospect to define the extent of the mineralisation.
The first pass RAB drilling at Penny West in 1989 intersected patchy low-grade gold up to 1.5g/t. Penny West went on to be mined for approximately 150,000 ounces of gold at a ridiculously high average grade of 22g/t.
Venus and Rox have an equal stake in the Venus JV, which is one of three regional exploration JV’s that the two companies have formed, which Venus is managing.
The active partners have also formed an equal joint venture, managed by Rox, over the historic Youanmi gold mine that was shut down in 1997 when the gold price was hovering between AUD$400 and AUD$450 an ounce.
Youanmi today hosts a mineral resource of 12.4 million tonnes grading 2.97g/t gold for an attractive 1.19 million ounces of gold. The project also contains a mothballed 600,000 tonne per annum gold processing plant.
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