Venus mines 50g/t gold rock chips at historic WA gold mine

Venus Metals has collected a large quantity of very high grade gold rock chips in and around historic workings in the Goldfields region of WA.

The headline grade is a whopping 50 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from the company’s Hilltop prospect, part of its broader Henderson gold project, about 50 kilometers northwest of Menzies.

The series of rock chips taken from ancient quartz-rich quarried rock piles, also known as mullock piles, produced multiple hits grading over 20g/t gold.

The main rock chip of 50.1 g/t was extracted from a compost heap along the historic northern workings exhibiting several open pits and workings over a length of 125 m.

Another rock chip from the southern working line exceeded ounce per tonne gold at 36.9 g/t gold and the southern line returned strikes along a 50m strike.

The finding confirms a previous reconnaissance sample that returned 77.2g/t, reported in 2021.

Management says the rock chip samples were obtained from the two parallel northwest-trending lines of Mullock piles observed at Hilltop, in addition to a series of open pits observed nearby and from several shallow workings.

The company reported that gold-bearing quartz or gold-bearing quartz vein reefs were observed in several of the open pits, indicating possible free gold and showing a style of mineralization similar to nearby high-grade gold deposits.

Analyzes of samples derived from gold-bearing quartz reefs were also considered promising, with several returning more than 2 g/t gold.

Hilltop was subject to historic mining which ceased in 1941 during World War II.

The historic mine and its related workings are located in the southern section of the Henderson project lands, which extend over 438 square kilometers in the central part of the WA Yilgarn Craton.

They include the 25 kilometer length of the Mount Ida-Ularring greenstone belt, known for its gold mineralization.

There are two parallel lines of workings trending northwest with historical production coming from two shallow wells in the center of the southern line of old workings.

Official records show that gold production lasted for one year between 1940 and 1941, with a total production of 200 tonnes of material at an impressive average grade of 22.4 g/t for approximately 100 ounces of gold.

Venus says that the compost heaps next to the workings are generally rich in quartz and that one spot along the workings contains visible gold.

It says most of the quartz-rich mullock samples analyzed returned more than 5g/t gold and are likely to be free gold.

Recent exploration work at the site includes field mapping with a reverse circulation drilling program now planned to test the mineralization at depth.

Venus finds the 28-sample rock chip program encouraging and plans to quickly proceed with planned drilling.

The company is also advancing other gold targets on its Henderson properties that were identified from a recent review of regional geochemical data.

Venus may be onto something worthwhile at Hilltop.

Its riches-near-the-mines-left-by-veterans strategy has generally worked well in other ASX-listed company ventures in WA.

It’s a nod to former gold miners who weren’t too keen on gold falling below 15 grams per tonne, a company making a proposition these days.

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