Rox drilling beyond Youanmi mine plan: design and scheduling notes for planners
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Rox Resources has reported new high-grade underground diamond drilling intercepts at the Youanmi Gold Mine in Western Australia, including 2.24m at 39.33g/t gold from 220.7m and 5m at 6.39g/t from 108m, pointing to extensions of the United North lodes. The results suggest mineralisation continues beyond the current Definitive Feasibility Study mine plan, supporting potential increases in underground inventory and mine life. Geotechnical and mine planning teams will need to reassess stope layouts, ground support and access development to capture the additional ounces.
Technical Brief
- Underground diamond drilling from existing Youanmi development drives enables tight-spaced definition of United North lodes.
- Intercepts are from underground platforms, reducing collar-to-target distance and improving structural orientation control.
- High-grade hits at depth will require updated geotechnical domains and stope stability assessments for United North.
- Additional underground inventory at Youanmi could justify re-optimisation of haulage, ventilation and secondary egress layouts.
- For similar brownfield underground gold mines, such step-out drilling commonly triggers revised cut-off grade and scheduling strategies.
Our Take
The high-grade underground hits at Youanmi and United North sit alongside earlier intercepts reported on 21 April 2026 outside the definitive feasibility study mine plan, suggesting Rox Resources may be able to justify a staged expansion case rather than a simple restart scenario.
With Glencore Technology’s Albion Process already selected for Youanmi’s refractory and semi-refractory ores (7 August 2026 item), additional high-grade underground material could improve feed flexibility and help maintain recoveries if near-surface grades underperform.
Across our 1305 Mining stories, Western Australian gold projects like Youanmi feature heavily in the Projects tag set, signalling that Rox Resources is advancing in a jurisdiction where permitting and construction pathways are comparatively well-trodden for new or restarted gold mines.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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