Venture Minerals Ltd (ASX:VMS, OTC:VTMLF) has unearthed shallow rare earth element (REE) mineralisation at the Vulcan prospect within the Golden Grove North project in Perth, Western Australia, which the company described as a “very high grade” discovery.
Surface sample results included several values over 1% total rare earth oxide (TREO), up to 12.5% TREO, with 5,460 parts per million (ppm) (0.55%) praseodymium oxide (Pr6O11) and 14,575 ppm (1.46%) neodymium oxide (Nd2O3).
The new REE target is supported by historical soil sampling originally focused on volcanic massive sulfide (VMS) style mineralisation that was also assayed for lanthanum and cerium.
The latest soil samples were analysed for all the 14 rare earth elements, excluding promethium plus yttrium, and have confirmed and defined the target.
Vulcan prospect: Geology Map showing REE surface sampling results.
Separately, Venture’s previously-drilled diamond core hole VUDD001 targeting VMS style mineralisation adjacent to the new REE target intersected anomalous lanthanum and cerium, but the hole was not drilled deep enough to test the new target.
Follow-up work has been prioritised to define the nature and scale of this discovery.
Doubling rare earth exposure
Venture Minerals managing director Andrew Radonjic said: “The discovery of very high-grade, rare earth mineralisation 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.
“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 mineralised systems, consequently leading to a higher probability of exploration success. The company looks forward to keeping shareholders updated on the testing of these exciting new opportunities.”
Highly prospective land package
The Golden Grove North Project is a 288 square-kilometre property less than 10 kilometres north of the Golden Grove Camp, currently Western Australia’s premier location for VMS deposits.
The project has 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.
Electromagnetic 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 have included 10 metres at 1.4 g/t gold from 16 metres, 8 metres at 2.1 g/t gold from 6 metres, 6 metres at 2.3 g/t gold from 6 metres and 3 metres at 3.6 g/t gold from 95 metres.
Meanwhile, historic surface rock chip sampling has returned assays including 9.4 g/t gold, 7.4 g/t gold and 6.6% copper, 6.2 g/t gold, 5.7 g/t gold, 4.0 g/t gold, 3.8 g/t gold and 3.1% lead, 7.6% copper and 0.1% zinc, 8.0% copper, 2.0% copper, 1.8% copper and 3 g/t silver.