Venture Minerals Limited (ASX: VMS) has discovered Very High Grade REE surface mineralization at the Vulcan prospect within the Golden Grove North project in Western Australia.
Results included several values over 1% TREO ranging up to 12.5% TREO with 5,460ppm (0.55%) Praseodymium Oxide (Pr6O11) and 14,575ppm (1.46%) Neodymium Oxide (Nd2O3).
The new REE target is supported by historic soil sampling originally focused on VMS style mineralization that was also assayed for two REEs being La and Ce. Recently completed soil sampling in which the TREE suite was analyzed (all 14 rare earth elements excluding promethium plus yttrium), confirmed and defined the discovery.
In addition, Venture’s previously drilled diamond core hole VUDD001 targeting VMS style mineralization adjacent to the new REE target intersected anomalous La and Ce, but the hole was not drilled deep enough to test this new target.
The company has prioritized this very high grade REE target for follow up work, focusing on fully defining the nature and scale of this REE opportunity.
“The discovery of Very High Grade Rare Earth mineralization at one of our VMS prospects at Golden Grove North, effectively doubles the company’s exposure to the rare earth space, as it follows our recent rare earth discovery at Mount Lindsay,” Managing Director,” Andrew Radonjic, said.
“Clearly the company’s diverse portfolio of projects affords the unique opportunity for such discoveries, due to Venture’s strategic landholdings in areas with the potential to host multiple mineralized systems, consequently leading to a higher probability of exploration success.”
Venture recently completed a ground based, moving, in-loop transient electromagnetic (MLTEM) survey (14.5- line kilometres) over prospective areas to the west of Orcus, as part of a larger EM survey (37.65-line kilometres) completed over other untested areas on E59/1989, including Vulcan North and the ultramafics in the north-western part of the tenement.
The only conductors of note delineated by the survey were west of Orcus and deemed to be relatively small and of lower prospectivity, and therefore were unlikely to be followed up with drilling at this stage.
Highlights at the Golden Grove North Project include:
• 288 sq. km located less than 10km from the Golden Grove Mine;
• 25 strike kilometres of a largely untested, prospective geological sequence for VMS style
mineralisation with early exploration success yielding the Vulcan and Neptune VMS targets;
• EM surveys at Vulcan have discovered four high priority VMS drill targets at and around the Copper-Gold Prospect along strike to the Golden Grove Zinc-Copper-Gold Mine.
• Historic shallow gold drill intersections including 10m @ 1.4g/t gold from 16m, 8m @ 2.1g/t gold from 6m, 6m @2.3g/t gold from 6m and 3m @ 3.6g/t gold from 95m
• Historic surface rock chip sampling has returned assays including 9.4g/t gold, 7.4g/t gold and 6.6% copper, 6.2g/t gold, 5.7g/t gold, 4.0 g/t gold, 3.8g/t gold & 3.1% lead, 7.6% copper and 0.1% zinc, 8.0% copper, 2.0% copper, 1.8% copper & 3g/t silver.
The Golden Grove Camp, 370km north-northeast of Perth, is the prime VMS occurrence in the Archean Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia with over 12 deposits discovered over 13km of strike. The first significant deposit, Gossan Hill (15.9Mt @ 2.6% Cu, 1.5% Zn, 0.2% Pb, 21 g/t Ag & 0.6 g/t Au1) was discovered in 1971, then in 1979 the second substantial find was identified at Scuddles (10.5Mt @ 1.2% Cu, 11.7% Zn, 0.8% Pb, 89 g/t Ag & 1.1 g/t Au).
At the end of 2002, Golden Grove had an endowment (resources and production) of 40.2Mt @ 1.8% Cu, 0.9% Pb, 7.6% Zn, 103 g/t Ag & 0.8 g/t Au.
In February 2017, EMR Capital purchased Golden Grove for $US210M, since then EMR has invested more than A$230M in Golden Grove and in June 2021 EMR included Golden Grove as the flagship asset of the ASX listing for 29 Metals where the Prospectus for the Initial Public Offer was to raise A$528M which was listed on 2 July 2021. The 29 Metals Prospectus states that after 30 years of continuous production there is over 10 years of mine life in reserves for the 1.8Mt per annum operation.
The Prospectus also stated that Golden Grove has a number of in-mine and near-mine growth opportunities including Cervantes (Mineral Resource: 2.3Mt @ 1.1% Cu, 6.9% Zn, 0.5g/t Au, 34g/t Ag), Xantho Extended and Europa (Mineral Resource: 9.0Mt @ 8.1% Zn, 1.9% Cu, 34g/t Ag, 0.9g/t Au), Oizon (Mineral Resource: 3.4Mt @ 2.3% Cu, 2.1% Zn, 26g/t Ag, 0.5g/t Au; open at depth), Gossan Valley (Mineral Resource: 6.1 Mt @ 0.9% Cu, 6.7% Zn, 0.5g/t Au, 16g/t Ag) and Xantho Extended North (Priority target for exploration at Golden Grove). As of 30 June 2020, the Golden Grove Mineral Resources was 58Mt @ 1.6% Cu, 0.7 g/t Au, 4.5% Zn, 30 g/t Ag & 0.3% Pb.
For further information please visit: https://www.ventureminerals.com.au/
