Venture Minerals Ltd (ASX:VMS) has reported grades beyond 2000 parts per million (ppm) in total rare earth oxides from its Jupiter discovery in Western Australia, with a recent phase of aircore drilling yielding consistently thick mineralisation of high-grade REEs (rare earth elements) in the southern part of the target area.
This included the best intercept taken from the project to date, which came in at 58 metres at 2,723ppm TREO.
Other high-grade intercepts included 48 metres at 1,661 metres TREO ppm including 16 metres at 2,469 TREO ppm, and 32 metres at 1,652 ppm TREO including 8 metres 2,339 ppm TREO – with Venture completing 258 drill holes overall for a total of 22,000 metres at the Jupiter prospect.
The drilling work has also yielded more information about the nature of mineralisation at Jupiter, with a clay zone of up to 80 metres identified across the whole alkaline intrusive which defines Jupiter.
Venture is optimistic about this find, given the tendency of clay zones to host high grade REE mineralisation, and the company is now looking ahead to developing a maiden resource estimate for Jupiter.
Managing director Philippa Leggat said the consistently strong results from Jupiter – located east of Geraldton – were indicative of its significance.
“The most telling way to assess exploration success is to compare the before and after results,” she said.
“When you see infill drilling delivering a sea of magenta that represents the highest grade, like we see in the southern area of Jupiter, you know you’re onto a very, robustly mineralised system.
“And, after over 200 drill holes we are still breaking records, with amazing intersections of up to 58 metres at 2,723ppm TREO in this latest batch of assays.”
Venture has been trading at 2.6 cents.