Rox uncovers high-grade gold below Youanmi resource

High-grade intercept extends United North below resource

Rox Resources Limited (ASX:RXL) has opened a new depth-growth front at Youanmi with a 4.87-metre gold intercept grading 15.13g/t from 584.13 metres in hole RXDD241. The interval includes 1.78 metres at 32.98g/t gold, making it the most consequential result in the first batch from the company’s United North resource growth program.

“Ore Reserves & Mineral Resource Conversion and Resource Growth drilling areas showing pierce points of completed drilling.”

The mineralised zone sits about 25 metres below the current resource boundary and roughly 50 metres below the deepest drill intercept within the existing resource. Rox says the hole intersected the characteristic Youanmi-style main-lode shear lithology, supporting its interpretation that the main and hanging-wall lodes continue down-plunge beyond the current resource model.

Conversion drilling confirms the existing geological model

The same program also produced a more modest, but important, result from the resource conversion area: RXDD240 returned 3.16 metres at 3.78g/t gold from 448.20 metres. Rox said the result confirmed that lode thickness and mineralisation continuity were maintained within the targeted Inferred Resource area.

The work follows the company’s United North high-grade drilling, which earlier extended the mine plan by about 125 metres and led to production stope planning. The latest holes target deeper mineralisation rather than simply converting material already incorporated into the mine plan, giving the results potential relevance to the longer-term shape of Youanmi.

Resource growth remains prospective, not established

“Youanmi Mineral Resource drilling targets long section.”

Youanmi’s September 2026 Mineral Resource stood at 12.4 million tonnes grading 5.5g/t gold for 2.195 million ounces. Rox is using the current surface diamond drilling campaign for three purposes: converting Inferred material, defining additional mineralisation around the existing resource and testing plunge extensions beneath United North towards Youanmi Main.

Those objectives could support future resource and Ore Reserve growth, mine-life extension and higher production, but the announcement does not establish any of those outcomes. The reported intervals are downhole lengths that approximately represent true widths, and results from the remaining four holes completed so far are expected before the end of 2026. Drilling is scheduled to continue into early calendar 2027, alongside underground drilling.

A deeper test of Rox’s 150,000-ounce ambition

Rox has linked the program to its aspiration of becoming a 150,000-ounce-per-year operation as it works towards first gold from Youanmi in mid-2027. That aspiration remains separate from the project’s initial production plan, and the latest intercept is not yet a resource, reserve or production estimate. Its immediate value lies in testing whether the geological interpretation holds as drilling moves farther beneath the current model.