Namibia’s nickel reserves are nowhere near those of South Africa, Zimbabwe, or Madagascar, but something is happening.
According to the Nickel Institute, the world’s nickel resources are estimated at almost 350 million tons.
South Africa has 3,7 million tonnes, accounting for 3.5% of world reserves; Madagascar has 1,4 million tonnes or 1.3% of world reserves; and Zimbabwe accounts for 0.4% with 383,000 tonnes.
The projects in Namibia, notably the Kunene Nickel Project, the Kum-Kum Nickel Project, and the Grootfontein Nickel Projects, are in the early stages of exploration.
African Nickel has a 75% interest in EPL 7609 and 7610, under which the Kunene Nickel Project resides.
Rudolf de Bruin and Dr David Twist founded African Nickel Ltd in 2006.
The South African-based company had an agreement with Anglo-American, which expired in 2011.
Through Anglo-American, African Nickel inherited the mineral exploration database of work conducted in Namibia, South Africa, Malawi, Burundi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique.
Most, if not all, the projects African Nickel inherited from Angola-American Corp were small.
Anglo-American Corp had drilled two holes at the Ombuku prospect when it abandoned the Kunene project, which has two targets – the Ombuku North and Ombuku South.
Since taking over the project, African Nickel has conducted various geophysical surveys, extensive Gossan search, stream and soil sampling, and completed various drill holes.
Five of the 11 drillholes have mineralised zones above 0.3% NiEq.
The company completed pit shell optimisation in 2013 for the preliminary surface resource. The pit shell optimisation would be updated with ongoing drill work.
African Nickel also commissioned a concept study on mining the Kunene orebody in November 2022, and the reasonable prospect of economic extraction estimate for surface and underground mining is at an advanced stage.
In November 2022, African Nickel commissioned a competent person report and a preliminary compliant resource quantification done during the first quarter of 2023 in the Ombuku North target.
Also, in June 2023, African Nickel completed a desk-top study on metallurgical strategy for Kunene. In July, the company started extracting a bulk sample with Bench Scale.
In June 2023, African Nickel started a focused exploration programme with key milestone to declare a potentially significant maiden compliant resource by the first half of 2024.
The audio magnetotellurics (AMT) geophysical survey work completed by mid-Jun 2023 will allow accurate drill work planning in Ombuku North and South.
In August 2023, Africa Nickel started metallurgical test work, which will lead to a pre-feasibility study.
Kum-Kum Nickel Project
Arcadia Minerals owns the Kum-Kum Copper-Platinum Group Elements project under EPLs 6940 and 7295. The project is 15 km north of the Orange River in the south of Namibia.
The Kum-Kum Project is an early-stage exploration project under the Orange River Pegmatite, a subsidiary of Arcadia Minerals.
Orange River Pegmatite’s work demonstrates that the Kum-Kum Intrusive Suite meets the mineral-systems-approach criteria for exploration targeting magmatic-hosted sill/dyke complex-type Ni-Cu-(PGE)-(Au)-(V-Co-Cr-Fe) sulphide deposits.
Rio Tinto and Falconbridge conducted a regional scale exploration in the early 1970s, demonstrating that the Kum-Kum Suite hosts significant contact- and disseminated-type Ni-Cu sulphide mineralisation.
Nickel and Copper grades attained by Rio Tinto and Falconbridge ranged between 0.21 – 0.58 % Ni and 0.30 – 0.50 % Cu for mineralised drill hole intersection thickness of up to 30 m.
Significant nickel anomalies, with corresponding high copper values, were obtained on the farms Keimasmund 98, Orange Fall 101, Vaaldoorn 91 and Nautsis 92, which fall under EPL 6940.
These were the only results the company was able to obtain. There is no indication that PGE and precious metal test work was conducted then.
In addition, detailed geophysical work has yet to be conducted on any of the EPLs to date, and the sub-surface distribution of the sulphide mineralisation still needs to be explored.
Based on limited field investigations and a review of the available literature, Orange River Pegmatite considers the Kum-Kum Intrusive Suite underexplored and highly prospective.
It has a high discovery potential for magmatic-hosted Ni-Cu—(PGE)—(Au)—(V-Co-Cr-Fe) sulphide deposits and has identified several primary exploration targets.
Grootfontein Nickel-Copper, Lead-Zinc-Vanadium, Gold
Sylla Gold now owns the Grootfontein Nickel-Copper, Lead-Zinc-Vanadium, Gold project after Namibia Critical Metals sold 95% interest in all its subsidiaries. The deposit project is under EPLs 6561 and 5992.
Anglo-American drilled two shallow holes in 1988, leaving 55 km of strike length untested.
Ongopolo Mining’s previous work proved that the main intrusive phases are depleted in Nickel and copper.
Based on historic drill holes and airborne magnetic survey interpretations, Grootfontein constitutes a mafic complex covering 360 km² with the potential to host magmatic copper-nickel deposits as cumulates or late magmatic disseminations and stockworks.
Nickel Uses
STAINLESS STEEL 65%
BATTERIES 17%
NICKEL-BASED ALLOYS 5%
PLATING 5%
ALLOY STEELS 3%
OTHERS 2%
