Venus Metals Corporation Limited (ASX: VMC) exploration licence E57/1078 (VMC 100%) is located in the Mid-West Region of Western Australia, approximately 30 km south of the Youanmi gold mine. The company is exploring lithium mineralisation on this exploration licence, the Youanmi Lithium Project.
Maiden drilling at the Deep South Lithium Prospect has returned high grade lithium intersections (ASX 25 March 2024). Highlights of the 26-hole, 2,250m RC drill program include:
- VMC220 - 24m @ 1.71% Li2O, including 14m @ 2.54% Li2O (0-14m)
- VMC209 - 15m @ 1.34% Li2O, including 8m @ 2.19% Li2O (0-8m)
- VMC224 - 7m @ 1.54% Li2O, including 3m @ 2.89% Li2O (1-4m)
- VMC212 - 2m @ 4.09% Li2O (0m-2m)
- VMC213 - 3m @ 1.89% Li2O, including 1m @ 4.06% Li2O (16-17m)
Lithium mineralisation occurred within pegmatites which with assays also indicated strong tantalum enrichment with up to 1439ppm Ta2O5 observed.
Venus believes that the Deep South drilling represents a significant new lithium find in an under-explored and poorly outcropping region of the Youanmi Greenstone Belt.
Additionally, geochemical samples at the Penny East Prospect some 20km to the northeast of the Deep South Prospect have identified large lithium soil anomalies which require follow up work (ASX 15 April 2024).
Exploration at Deep South and the Penny East Prospects have shown that lithium soil anomalies and/or lithium mineralisation has now been reported from several localities east of the Youanmi Fault Zone over a strike length of over 30km.
Further work is planned to examine the potential for the Youanmi Lithium Project to host district-scale lithium mineralisation. This planned work includes Phase 2 RC and diamond drilling at Deep South and further sampling work and shallow drilling at Penny East.