Highlights
• Discovery potential of the Needles Gold Project further enhanced by recent soil sampling program. • Assay results have delineated several strong multi-element soil anomalies. • The anomalies bear key geochemical characteristics of epithermal gold-silver systems. • None of the anomalies have been drill-tested and represent priority exploration opportunities. • Results awaited from a recent airborne magnetic-radiometric geophysical survey. • Assay results from the recent 8-hole RC drilling program at Needles have been delayed due to the backlog of work at US-based assay laboratories and are expected in the coming weeks
Venari Minerals NL (ASX: VMS) ("VMS", "Venari" or "the Company") is pleased to advise that it has received highly encouraging results from a recent soil sampling campaign at the Needles Gold Project in Nevada, USA, further enhancing the exploration and discovery potential of the project. Assay results from the program have identified a number of strong multi-element soil anomalies bearing key geochemical characteristics of large-scale epithermal gold-silver systems. Importantly, the anomalies are all untested by exploration drilling.
The 820-point soil sampling campaign was designed to identify metal zonation and generate further drill targets at the under-explored project, which had never been systematically soil sampled under the Company's previous management or by previous explorers of the Needles Project area.
A total of six significant multi-element anomalies were identified, all of which are anomalous with respect to gold and arsenic, and variously with respect to silver and epithermal pathfinder elements antimony and mercury (Figures 2 to 6). Five of the six anomalies are located in the south of the project and the remaining anomaly in the north of the project, and most have a spatial proximity to mapped faults and fault intersections (Figure 1).
The geochemical association of pathfinder elements with gold and silver and mapped structures makes these areas highly prospective, and importantly none of the anomalies have been tested by exploration drilling, with only the northern anomaly (Anomaly 1) having any nearby drilling.
The Company is currently interpreting the results from a recent airborne magnetic-radiometric geophysical survey and is awaiting assay results from the recently completed 8-hole Reverse Circulation drilling campaign completed at the Needles Project. Assay results from this campaign, and the subsequent Red Mountain drilling campaign, have been delayed as a result of a surge in exploration activity in the US and the associated backlog of samples awaiting processing at USA-based labs.
Once the assays are received and interpretations completed, the Company will determine next steps for the project, including advancing exploration of the newly identified soil anomalies.
Venari Chairman, Tony Leibowitz, said: "We are greatly encouraged by the soil sampling data, which has further elevated the potential of the Needles Project and validated the team's view of the growing discovery potential across the project. The large multi-element anomalies have all the geochemical characteristics that geologists look for when exploring for large-scale epithermal gold-silver systems and, importantly, none of them have ever been drilled – supporting our view that the most prospective exploration spaces across the project are yet to be tested. We are looking forward to compiling this information with the results of the recently completed geophysical surveys, as well as assay results from the recent RC drilling and planning our next exploration steps."
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About us:
Venari Minerals NL
Venari Minerals is a diversified ASX-listed exploration company driven to create value through discovering and developing deposits of critical and precious metals in the renowned mining jurisdiction of Nevada, with a principal focus on lithium, gold and silver. The Company is focused on rapidly advancing its recent Red Mountain Lithium Discovery, located in the battery metals capital of the US, Nevada, and exploring for a world-class epithermal gold-silver discovery at its Needles Project, also in Nevada.
