PRESS
RELEASE
03 December
2024
KAVANGO RESOURCES PLC
("Kavango" or "the
Company")
ZIM -- Hillside Tungsten & Strategic
Element Results
Kavango Resources plc (LSE: KAV), the Southern
Africa focussed metals exploration company, is pleased to announce
its first multi-element assay results have identified significant
concentrations of tungsten and other strategic elements across the
Hillside Project ("Hillside") in Matabeleland, southern
Zimbabwe.
The Company conducted its first phase of
Inductively Coupled Plasma ("ICP") tests on core samples collected
from four diamond holes drilled at Hillside. Samples from three
sets of cores returned potentially economic concentrations of
tungsten and other strategic elements, including bismuth, selenium
and molybdenum.
Following this success, Kavango will widen its
exploration focus in Zimbabwe to include tungsten and strategic
elements. The Company will now arrange for further assays to test
tungsten values and widths.
Ben Turney,
Chief Executive of Kavango Resources, commented:
"As we move
into resource drilling at Prospect 3 at our Hillside Gold Project,
our first multi-element assay results have given us additional
exploration upside.
Strategic
minerals and critical elements often occur within commercial gold
deposits around the world. They can form a valuable biproduct of
gold mining, especially in today's climate of increasingly
restricted supply and strong demand.
We are
particularly encouraged by the tungsten ICP results at Hillside,
with a peak intersection value of 2,200ppm. We encountered
significant tungsten concentrations across three of our gold
targets here, all within 1.5km of each other. The values returned
for bismuth, selenium and molybdenum also appear meaningful. These
are enticing leads we will now pursue.
To this end,
we have completed a preliminary desktop review of historic data of
reported production of tungsten across the greenstone belt we are
operating in. According to records, tungsten has been sourced from
106 deposits in the region historically. Given that this element
can act as a pathfinder for other strategic elements, we are
increasingly confident of the discovery potential in our
area.
Moving
forward, we will now conduct ICP testing on all drill cores taken
from the Hillside and Nara gold projects to widen our search for
more metals and elements."
ICP Assays
Results Overview
Kavango has six gold exploration targets at
Hillside (Prospects 1 - 6) hosted in a single Archeaen Greenstone
Belt. Tungsten and other strategic elements are known to occur in
such greenstone hosted gold deposits around the world. Depending on
grade and concentration, such strategic elements can be extracted
as commercial biproducts as part of a gold production
process.
The Company has currently drill tested 5 of its
6 prospects at Hillside, with 11 diamond core holes. In these 11
diamond exploration holes, Kavango geologists have repeatedly
logged high tungsten, bismuth, selenium and molybdenum values in
pXRF spot readings. In addition, they have observed scheelite in
association with gold mineralisation. This prompted Kavango to
conduct ICP assays on holes BLDD001 (at Prospect 1), BRDD01 (at
Prospect 2), NSDD001 (at Prospect 3) and SKDD001 (at Prospect 4) to
confirm the logged intersection values.
Prospects 1 to 3 are located on the main
Hillside project area. Prospect 4 is located 13km to the
north.
ICP results from holes BLDD001, BRDD001 and
NSDD001 returned significant tungsten results and confirmed the
presence of potentially economic concentrations. The map below
shows the occurrence of tungsten across Prospect 1, 2 and 3 with a
scale for 250 parts per million ("ppm") shown. The crustal
abundance for tungsten is known to be 1.25ppm
Figure 1: Tungsten concentrations in Holes BLDD001, BRDD001
and NSDD001 at the Hillside Gold Project,
Zimbabwe
In addition to significant tungsten
intersection values, the ICP assays revealed significant
intersection values for bismuth, selenium and molybdenum. Peak
values are presented in Table 1 below.
|
Table 1: Peak
ICP results for tungsten, bismuth, molybdenum and selenium
identified at Hillside, including values relative to crustal
abundance and total annual global production for each
element
|
|
Element (symbol)
|
Drill Hole
|
Peak Value Identified (parts per
million)
|
Crustal Abundance (parts per
million)
|
Global Annual Production (tonnes per
year)
|
|
Bismuth
|
BRDD01
|
536
|
0.0085
(8.5×10−7%)
|
10,200
|
|
Molybdenum
|
BLDD001
|
161.5
|
1.2
(0.00012%)
|
227,000
|
|
Selenium
|
BRDD01
|
11.8
|
0.05
(5×10−6%)
|
2,200
|
|
Tungsten
|
BLDD001
|
2,200
|
1.25
(0.000125%)
|
86,400
|
The Company is particularly interested by the
returns for bismuth and selenium. Crustal abundance for bismuth is
recorded at 0.0085 (8.5×10−7%) ppm and for selenium at
0.05 (5×10−6%) ppm. Peak ICP Results were 536ppm for
bismuth and 11.8ppm for selenium. 10,200 tonnes of bismuth and
2,200 tonnes of selenium are produced globally each year. There are
only 2 known dedicated bismuth mines and no primary selenium mines.
Each element is produced as a biproduct in other mining with
bismuth primarily sourced from lead or tungsten ores, while
selenium is sourced from copper and lead ores.
Tungsten and
Strategic Element Focus
Hillside lies in the Filabusi Greenstone Belt.
Kavango's primary focus at Hillside is the fast-track development
of its gold production targets at Prospects 3 and 4 (announced
>>>
25 November 2024 and
22 November 2024).
However, the Filabusi Greenstone Belt and
surrounding granitoids have a past recorded production of 1,920.70
tonnes of tungsten concentrate sourced from 106 deposits, primarily
at shallow depths with the majority as by product or credits from
gold production.
There appears to be a close spatial
relationship between the tungsten occurrences and the granite
contact zone with the volcanic metasediments forming the greenstone
or within the granites at shallow depths below. To date scheelite
is the only tungsten mineral recorded from the gold deposits, and
is often associated with bismuth, molybdenite, beryl, tantalite and
tin similar to other greenstone deposits globally.
Historical producers in Filabusi mined the
scheelite from within stockworks, pegmatites and shear zones,
concentrated within and close to the contact of the high-level
granite and granodiorite stocks
There are 24 tungsten producers recorded within
Kavango held properties with a total production of 155.88t of
tungsten (scheelite) concentrate (figures Baglow, 1991).
No modern exploration for tungsten or strategic
elements has been conducted at the Company's Hillside or Nara* gold
projects.
Based on the multi-element results, Kavango
will now broaden its exploration at Hillside and Nara to routinely
include ICP and X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRF) analysis for
Strategic Minerals and critical elements.
* Kavango holds an option to acquire
Nara until June 2025 (announced
>>> 26 June 2023).
Process of
Inductively Coupled Plasma and X-Ray Fluorescence ("XRF")
Spectrometry
ICP is a sophisticated form of assay testing
that is used to detect metallic and non-metallic elements in liquid
samples at very low concentrations. XRF is an analytical
technique that uses the interaction of X-rays with a material to
determine its elemental composition and allows specifically for the
determination of tungsten grades as WO3. These are both
powerful exploration tools for strategic minerals and their
component critical elements in the search for economic
concentrations greater than crustal abundance
Zimbabwe currently lacks an internationally
accredited laboratory that can conduct either ICP or XRF assay
testing. As a result, Kavango must export samples to an
internationally accredited laboratory in South Africa. This
requires specific permits to be granted by the Ministry of Mines
and other government departments in Zimbabwe. The process for this
is currently time consuming, but Kavango is seeking to work
proactively with the relevant Zimbabwean authorities to increase
the speed at which it can conduct future ICP & XRF
testing.
Given the significance of today's results for
strategic elements exploration in Zimbabwe, Kavango anticipates
productive discussions with the relevant government
departments.
Kavango's
Operations in Zimbabwe
Kavango is exploring for gold deposits in
Zimbabwe that have the potential to be brought into production
quickly through modern mechanised mining. The Company is targeting
both open-pit and underground opportunities.
Currently, Kavango has two projects on the same
greenstone belt, Hillside and Nara.
Kavango exercised its option to acquire
Hillside in April 2024. Here the Company has two high-priority
targets that it hopes to bring into production over the next 18
months; Prospect 3 and Prospect 4. At Prospect 3 Kavango is
investigating the potential for an open-pit selective bulk mining
operation. Meanwhile, at Prospect 4 Kavango is pursuing a
high-grade, underground bulk-minable opportunity.
In parallel to this, Kavango has an option to
acquire the Nara Project that currently runs until the end of June
2025. Here, the Company is exploring for a large-scale,
bulk-minable underground deposit at Nara. The primary target zone
is around the historic N1 mine, where the Company is assessing the
potential to expand artisanal workings at depth and along
strike.
Further information in respect of the Company
and its business interests is provided on the Company's website at
www.kavangoresources.com and on Twitter at #KAV.
For further information please
contact:
Kavango
Resources
plc
Ben Turney
+46 7697 406 06
First Equity (Broker)
+44 207 374 2212
Jason
Robertson
Kavango
Competent Person Statement
The technical information contained in this
announcement pertaining to geology and exploration have been
compiled by Mr David Catterall, a Competent Person and a member of
a Recognised Professional Organisations (ROPO). David Catterall has
sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of
mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the
activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as
defined in the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting
of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (JORC
2012). David is the principal geologist at Tulia Blueclay Limited
and a consultant to Kavango Resources. David Catterall is a member
of the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions, a
recognised professional organisation.
The technical information contained in this
announcement pertaining to mining has been compiled by Mr Craig
Hatch, a Competent Person and a member of a Recognised Professional
Organisations (ROPO). Craig Hatch has sufficient experience that is
relevant to the style of mining and type of deposit under
consideration and to the activities being proposed to qualify as a
Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Australasian
Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and
Ore Reserves (JORC 2012). Craig is the Principal Mining Engineer of
Minorex Pty Ltd and a consultant to Kavango Resources and is a
member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
(AusIMM), a recognised professional
organisation.