New record: Venture captures best-ever WA rare earths hit

Venture Minerals has unveiled what it says is its best-ever rare earths hit of 57m at 3430 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO) at its Jupiter target in Western Australia’s Mid West region, paving the way for an intriguing maiden resource for the 40-square-kilometre plot to be delivered by year’s end.

The news comes just a day after the company confirmed it was now sitting on a $12 million war chest, aimed squarely at aggressively exploring Jupiter, following the $3 million sale of its Riley iron ore mine in Tasmania. Management had previously reported its biggest rare earths hit of 58m at 2723ppm from Jupiter just last month.

The headline hit was part of a final batch of assays that has now been delivered to round out a 356-hole program covering 22,000m of drilling across a 500m-by-250m grid. Venture says the extensive exploration into clay-hosted mineralisation, reaching up to 80m in thickness in several areas, has demonstrated excellent continuity in both grade and width.

The company’s most recent drilling campaign produced an array of significant intersections including 38m at 1521ppm TREO, 40m at 1836ppm, 20m going 2363ppm, 45m reading 1652ppm and 78m at 1495ppm.

The potential the assays indicate for our upcoming Maiden Resource has heightened our anticipation. These results come at a time when we have secured 100% ownership of the Project and attracted high-quality institutional investors to fund the Company for the next 18 months.

The company’s further assessment of its latest assay suite also confirms that the magnetic rare earths component consistently averages 23 per cent, while uranium and thorium levels remain low throughout the Jupiter system – a critical factor when considering the cost economics of a project. It says it now has a sufficiently extensive dataset to be able to launch its work on a maiden resource estimate for the entire Jupiter alkaline intrusion.

Management is aiming to have it completed by the end of the year and is also getting set for a comprehensive metallurgical program.

The Jupiter project is part of Venture’s bigger Brothers project that was formerly known as Iron Duke. Detached from local population centres and close to essential infrastructure, including a bitumen highway and the Mid West gas pipeline, it is 60km from the Port of Geraldton, giving it ample access to a ready-made workforce.

With 1180sq km of granted exploration licenses and another 178sq km of exploration license applications under its belt, Venture is perhaps not only on a mission to Jupiter, but also to the moon with its highly-prospective clay-hosted rare earths at Brothers. Shallow, high-grade mineralisation close to infrastructure is the stuff that exploration dreams are made of.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au