Venus Metals (ASX:VMC) started diamond drilling at the Pinchers copper target in Western Australia, funded by the government's exploration incentive scheme co-funded grant, according to a Monday filing with the Australian bourse.

Metallurgical samples will also be collected from the planned additional diamond drilling at Pincher North Dome shallow zinc mineralization, the filing said.

The diamond rig will be moved to the Bellchambers gold deposit to collect core samples for further metallurgical recovery test work, per the filing.

Shares fell past 4% in afternoon trade on Monday.