With a portfolio of assets which spans iron ore, diamonds, gold, base metals and iron-oxide-copper-gold, the company has a pick of projects in commodities with very favourable outlooks.

In fact, Venus' assets cover21 project areas in regions subject to recent multi-billion dollar development and investment deals.

Managing director Matthew Hogan told RESOURCESTOCKS the Yalgoo iron ore project, in the emerging Murchison-Midwest province, was the company's flagship.

"The Yalgoo project is subject to a formal farm-in agreement with HD Mining & Investment, a subsidiary of Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources," he said.

"The deal involves an $8 million sole spend by HD Mining to earn a 50 per cent interest in the project.

Yalgoo contains a JORC inferred magnetite mineral resource of 443.9 million tonnes at the Bilberatha Hill deposit, as announced by Venus in December.

"The robust resource result was obtained with the support of HD Mining as part of the farm-in phase of their investment," Hogan said.

"The tonnage exceeds the target estimate we had for Bilberatha Hill, which was between 268 and 420 million tonnes.

"The strike length of the Bilberatha orebody is approximately 1.6 kilometres and the banded iron formation extends up to 630 metres below surface vertically and is still open at depth.

"The true thickness varies from 100 to 220 metres with an average of approximately 170 metres."

Adding to the prospectivity of the project, a number of separate target areas have been defined for drill testing within the lease area.

"The results of evaluation of magnetic data and field mapping of Yalgoo has identified further large magnetite exploration targets," Hogan said.

The company has set an exploration target of 150-300Mt at a grade of 30-35%.

In pursuit of this target, a 10,000m program of reverse circulation drilling recently commenced.

The results of the scoping study were impending as RESOURCESTOCKS went to print and early test work of the ore had returned promising results.

"Fresh magnetite BIF samples can be beneficiated, and has returned DTR concentrate grades of up to 71 per cent iron," Hogan said.

The second string in Venus' bow is the Argyle Smoke Creek Alluvial Diamond Project, which lies down drainage from the world's largest source of diamonds and the top producer of precious pink diamonds; Rio Tinto's Argyle mine.

Venus' holdings contain a JORC inferred resource of 17.9Mt at an average grade of 28 carats per hundred tonnes for 5 million carats.

Currently, Venus holds nine prospecting licences, with granting of a further 13 pending.

"The 1979 discovery of alluvial diamonds in Smoke Creek led to the discovery of the world-class Argyle diamond deposit," Hogan said.

"Prior to mining operations commencing at Argyle in 1985, Argyle Diamond Mines [ADM] mined parts of Smoke Creek.

"Venus commissioned geological consultants Widenbar and Associates to produce a preliminary resource estimate for the Smoke Creek alluvial diamond project, which lies adjacent to the primary deposit which hosts Argyle's current mine."

ADM carried out reconnaissance bulk sampling programs for diamonds in the 1980s and 1990s, which have formed the basis of the 5Mct JORC inferred resource statement.

"The Argyle Smoke Creek diamond deposit is a very rare opportunity," Hogan said.

"Other than Argyle Diamonds itself, Venus can potentially become the only other source of pink diamonds from Australia for the foreseeable future.

"Venus plans to extract diamonds as soon as possible to establish quality and value distribution."

Venus' next asset is the Telfer North Super group of projects.

"At Telfer North we're targeting concealed parts of proterozoic orogens which host a variety of world class giant ore deposits," Hogan said.

Telfer North Super comprises three major projects; Radi Hills, Mt Morris and Citadel.

Hogan said Radi Hills had returned a strong gravity amplitude response comparable to the world class Prominent Hill IOCG deposit in South Australia (pre-discovery).

At the Mt Morris IOCG project, historical exploration drilling by BHP Minerals in 1994 intersected basement at 256m depth and encountered sulfide veinlets.

Newcrest Mining drilled a hole in 2007 which was abandoned at 165m in running sands and did not test the main gravity anomaly.

"We plan to drill Mt Morris in conjunction with Radi Hills shortly," Hogan said.

Finally, Citadel is a gold project which hosts two Telfer dome structural "lookalikes", Citadel North and Citadel South.

Drilling at Citadel will be carried out in conjunction with other targets in the Telfer North Super project area.

The other "super project" in Venus's table is Gawler Craton West, hosting the Moodini project.

"Venus considers that the south Australian craton margins are prospective for other IOCG deposits the likes of Olympic Dam and Prominent Hill," Hogan said.

"Two very large IOCG targets were identified by a recent gravity survey at the Moodini project area and coincidence of magnetic highs with gravity highs suggests the possibility of extensive IOCG style mineralisation."

Moodini South has a strike length of 14km and Moodini North is 3km, and the area has been over pegged by Anglo American Exploration (Australian).

The final project area controlled by Venus is the West Murchison base metals-uranium project.

"A CSIRO-Venus co-funded reconnaissance water bore sampling program was recently completed in the West Murchison area," Hogan said.

"Groundwater samples collected at Yarloo Well have given strongly elevated copper and zinc values."

The CSIRO researchers said: "The groundwater is more saturated with respect to these secondary copper minerals than any other sample previously collected in this region.

"The Yarloo Well groundwater chemistry is similar to that found in groundwaters near the Jaguar deposit [in Western Australia]."

Hogan said West Murchison provided the company with an exciting early-stage exploration play, and geophysical surveys would be initiated shortly to identify drill target areas.

*This report, first published in the March 2011 edition of RESOURCESTOCKS magazine, was commissioned by Venus Metals