Kavango Resources plc has begun a new phase of drilling to explore the potential for a “large-scale underground gold mine” at its Nara project in Matabeleland, southern Zimbabwe.
STRUCTURE
Equity Drilling Zimbabwe will drill an initial three holes for 1,500m to test for laterally extensive gold mineralisation across “multiple” mineralised shears, or reefs.
Nara contains several historic mines, including N1 on which the company will initially focus.
In June the company confirmed a gold mineralisation system from scoping drilling and has since compared the results with digitised old mine plans and development sections of N1’s historic workings.
Kavango concluded that higher grade mineralisation coincided with the down dip extension of the N1 main reef, which was never developed or mined.
Artisanal miners, contracted by the project owner, are currently mining N1 to 4-level.
Development levels 5 and 6 are flooded with slimes, preventing access but also protecting the ore body from recent mining.
The company said that the levels offered “substantial” near-term upside.
Chief executive Ben Turney added that the June high grade gold intercepts between 235.5 and 242m coincided with the depth of a projected 7 level in N1.
“Historic mining at N1 only went down to 6 level.
“One of the main unanswered questions we had about this was whether the ore body continued to 7 level and below.
“Given that there are mines on the same regional structure as Nara that have been mined below 25 level (>750m depth from surface), this could be developing into a significant opportunity for Kavango.”
The company noted that N1 was reported to have produced 72,468 oz gold at an average grade of 10 g/t, while N2 produced 18,165 oz gold at an average grade of 8.9g/t between 1904 and 1964.