TNM Drill Down: Rox Resources leads week’s top gold assays with Youanmi in Australia

Our TNM Drill Down features highlights of the top gold assays of the past week. Drill holes are ranked by gold grade x width, as identified by our sister company Mining Intelligence. 

TNM Drill Down Feb. 24-Mar. 3, 2023.

Projects on three corners of the planet led results for the Feb. 24 to March 3 period. Rox Resources’ (ASX: RXL) Youanmi project in Australia topped the chart followed by Dundee Precious Metals’ (TSX: DPM) Tierras Coloradas project in Ecuador and Snowline Gold’s (TSX: SGD) Rogue project in northern Canada. 

At the past-producing Youanmi mine in western Australia, reverse-circulation drill hole RXRC458 cut 28 metres grading 34.8 grams gold per tonne from 204 metres downhole for a grade x width of 975.  

Rox and Venus Metals (ASX: VMC), which holds 30% of the project 480 km northeast of Perth, produced a scoping study last year envisioning annual production of 71,000 oz. gold from an open pit and underground operation.  

Over an initial eight-year mine life, it would produce 569,000 oz. of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of A$1,546 per oz. (US$1,074 per ounce). The study assessed a pre-tax net present value of A$300 million (US$208 million) with an internal rate of return of 45%, assuming a gold price of A$2,450 per oz. (US$1,700 per ounce). 

The mine shut in 1997 after output of 667,000 oz. of gold during three main periods: 1908 to 1921, 1937 to 1942 and after 1987. Rox began investing in it in 2019.  

The project contains an indicated resource of 12.1 million tonnes at 3.32 grams gold per tonne (near surface and underground) and inferred resources of 15.8 million tonnes at 3.75 grams gold, according to an April 2022 filing.  

In second place, Dundee Precious Metals’ drill hole TCDD014 cut 17.3 metres grading 46.1 grams gold per tonne from 101 metres downhole for a grade x width of 797 at the Tierras Colorada project in Ecuador.  

Drill results from the 70-sq.-km concession in Loja province southern Ecuador near the border of Peru concerned the Aparecida and La Tuna vein systems on part of the 8 km of strike length. Both targets remain open in multiple directions, the company said in a Feb. 27 news release.  

Toronto-based Dundee acquired Tierras Coloradas as part of a US$104 million deal in 2021 for the roughly three-quarters of junior miner IVN Metals it didn’t already own. The purchase also provided Ecuador concessions Loma Larga, Carolina, La Rebuscada and Las Peñas.  

In third place, Snowline Gold cut 558.6 metres grading 1.3 grams per tonne from 4.4 metres depth for a grade x width of 704 at the Valley discovery on its Rogue project in the Yukon.  

The Valley zone is one of multiple reduced intrusion related targets Snowline has identified at its 524-sq.-km Rogue project in the Selwyn Basin near the border with the Northwest Territories, roughly 400 km northeast of Whitehorse. 

“I invite anybody visiting Toronto for PDAC to look at the CN Tower, which stands 553.3 metres tall, just shy of the length of this mineralized interval,” Snowline CEO and director Scott Berdahl said in a Feb. 24 news release. “The scale, grade and continuity of the gold system at Valley continue to impress us and we look forward to additional results.”