London Stock Exchange-listed mining and exploration company Kavango Resources is upbeat to be a leading player in the Zimbabwe mining industry with the company establishing an office in Bulawayo to ensure its Hillside, Nara and Leopard gold projects become a success.
Rudairo Mapuranga
According to Kavango Chief Executive Officer, Ben Turney, the company is making huge strides on Hillside exploration work with 1,000m of diamond core drilling completed in four holes at three Hillside gold targets and samples awaiting export permission for assay testing.
Turney said there is enormous, unrealised potential in the goldfields of Zimbabwe. The country has a strong heritage in gold mining, despite the capital and technological constraints of recent years.
“Kavango has an ambitious plan in Zimbabwe to become a key player in the development of modern metals exploration and mining. Over the last six months, we’ve built a talented team on the ground in Bulawayo.
We are making excellent progress in exploring our project areas and I would like to congratulate everyone involved for their focused hard work. We’ve now completed our first 1,000m of diamond core drilling at Hillside and mapped the project area. Meanwhile, at Nara, we have augur drilled the main tailings dump and completed extensive mapping and soil geochemistry. Samples are waiting for export clearance and we look forward to reporting results as we receive them.
There is enormous, unrealised potential in the goldfields of Zimbabwe. The country has a strong heritage in gold mining, despite the capital and technological constraints of recent years. As we move forward together, I hope Kavango’s success will help illustrate what is possible in this exciting, heavily underexplored gold province.
To underline how great the potential is, we have extended our drill programme at Hillside to target a fourth prospect. The 250m diamond core hole will test the mineralised structures of a historic gold mine for their potential to host a larger-scale deposit. If results are positive, this will guide future drilling at this target area,” Turner said.
Hillside Drilling Extension
Kavango is testing the extent of gold mineralisation at the Prospect by drilling an exploration hole adjacent to a historic mine that reportedly produced an average recovered grade of 13g/t gold at various times from 1910 until recently.
Historic reports suggest mining was limited to the near-surface oxide zone, at shallow depths. The Prospect is considered by Kavango’s technical team to be a highly prospective greenstone gold target, located in a shear zone in granites and extending across the contact margin.
Kavango plans to drill a 250m diamond drill hole adjacent to the historic mine. The Company’s objective is to acquire representative intersections from the Prospect’s gold-bearing structures that will improve its understanding of their mineralisation and overall thickness.
Kavango expects to use this information to inform follow-up drilling at the Prospect and assess its potential for hosting bulk mineable gold deposits.
Nara Project
Kavango has carried out geochemical sampling and reconnaissance geological mapping over the Nara Gold Project. The Company has made a preliminary review of the geochemical samples using pXRF, and the soil samples are awaiting export to the laboratory for multi-element analysis.
In addition, Kavango has completed augur drilling on a large tailings dump at Nara. The Company has collected samples from 90 augur holes and sent them to the laboratory. Results are expected shortly. Assuming the results are positive, an independent consultant has been commissioned to prepare a resource estimate once these data are available.
Leopard Project
Kavango’s environmental consultant has completed an Environmental Impact Assessment on the Leopard Gold Project and Kavango is now preparing for an initial geochemical soil sampling programme.
The Company has reviewed the results of a previous drone survey and is currently processing and interpreting magnetic data.