Extends Mineralisation 100m To The South At Grace
Australian gold and nickel company, Rox Resources Limited ASX: RXL) and joint venture partner Venus Metals Corporation Limited, have received further positive results from exploration activities at Youanmi Gold Project near Mt Magnet, Western Australia.
Latest ssay results from the current drill programme have extended the known area of high-grade mineralisation at the Grace target by 100m to the south of previously determined extent. The highlight of this round of drilling being 8m @ 19.9 g/t Au encountered in a shallow position in hole RXRC363.
Managing Director, Alex Passmore, said results from the latest drilling programme, have been received for three holes, while results are outstanding for a further 15 holes. He noted that assay turnaround times are running at approximately five to six weeks due to increased activity across the sector.
Mr Passmore said the current RC drilling programme has been designed to test the southern continuation of the Grace deposit and other high grade near mine targets including the recently identified high priority Junction and Link targets.
“We are pleased to report these latest strong drill results from Youanmi and the shallow strike extensions at Grace. We look forward to updating the market as more results come to hand,” Mr Passmore said.
Following the extensive drilling campaign in 2020 a re-interpretation of structural controls on mineralisation at Youanmi was completed which identified underexplored high priority targets. This re-interpretation, a result interpretation of 2020 drilling results, structural relogging of historical diamond core and an audit of historical mining data, indicates that high-grade mineralisation along the Mine Shear Zone is strongly associated with shallow-plunging dilational shoots trending NNW.
Mr Passmore said new RC holes (RXRC363: 8m @ 19.9g/t Au from 68m and RXRC362: 4m @ 5g/t Au from 40m at Grace South and RXRC361: 4m @ 6g/t Au from 84m and 8m @ 4.1g/t Au from 112m at Junction.) have confirmed the new interpretation is geologically robust and additional RC drilling has been planned.
He said this new geological model indicates these targets have strong potential to significantly enhance near mine gold inventory.
Recent exploration work has identified the important Link and Junction targets, which are the intersection zones between N-S trending conjugate structures and the NW trending mine shear. The intersection of N-S trending lode structures (Hill End, Peru) with the NW trending high strain zone (Main Pit, northern pits) is where the major accumulations of gold are found at Youanmi. The intersection of these structures form high grade shallow NNW plunging shoots within overall steeply south plunging mineralised envelopes.
Current drilling is delineating and extending shallow high-grade shoots in the mine area with the aim of increasing near-mine resource. Additionally, results from the RC programme will aid in refining deeper down plunge targets for drill testing with an extensive upcoming diamond core drilling programme.
The current drilling in near mine and resource extension areas will feed into mineral resource estimation and a subsequent definitive feasibility study for the project. Work for 2021 will include substantial RC and diamond drilling programmes, metallurgical, hydrogeological, geotechnical and environmental studies to underpin an updated and optimised development plan.
Diamond drill targets in 2021 were not adequately tested due to poor contractor performance. The company has engaged a new drilling contractor and will resume diamond drilling in due course.
