Golden Deeps Limited, an Australian exploration company incorporated in 1991, first stepped into Namibia’s Otavi Mountainland in 2012 through the acquisition of two Australian-registered companies that together owned 100 per cent of Huab Energy (Pty) Ltd. Huab Energy was a Namibian-registered company holding two exclusive prospecting licences — EPL 3543 and EPL 5496 — covering the historic Abenab, Nosib, and Khusib Springs areas near Grootfontein.
This entry into Namibia gave Golden Deeps an 80 per cent beneficial interest in the two licences, with 20 per cent retained by local Namibian shareholders of Huab Energy, in line with the country’s mineral rights ownership rules.
The purchase price for the 2012 deal was never publicly disclosed, but the transaction established Golden Deeps as a serious player in one of Namibia’s most celebrated mineral belts.
The company’s early focus was on Abenab, a former high-grade vanadium-lead-zinc mine.
Historical records indicated exceptional ore quality, and Golden Deeps began confirmatory drilling to outline hard-rock resources beneath the old workings.
By 2019, the company entered into a joint venture with Hong Kong-based Generous Metals Company to process historical tailings at Abenab.
The JV installed a modular processing plant, targeting the recovery of vanadium pentoxide, lead, and zinc from stockpiled material.
At the same time, Golden Deeps retained the rights to the underlying hard-rock mineralisation.
Attention also turned to the Nosib prospect on EPL 5496, where drilling revealed a broad multi-metal system with gallium oxide, copper, vanadium, lead, silver, and traces of germanium and antimony.
On EPL 3543, the Khusib Springs corridor — site of a past-producing copper-silver mine — showed potential for new shoots along strike from the historical ore body.
A significant expansion came in April 2025 when Golden Deeps acquired 80 per cent of Namex Pty Ltd.
This Australian company owned 100% of Metalex Mining & Exploration (Pty) Ltd in Namibia.
Metalex held four EPLs — 8546, 8547, 8548, and 8643 — collectively known as the Central Otavi Critical Metals Project, which covered approximately 390 square kilometres between Otavi, Kombat, and Grootfontein.
The acquisition cost was US$250,000, and it expanded Golden Deeps’ total Namibian footprint to approximately 440 square kilometres.
The Central Otavi licences came with known targets such as Border, Driehoek, and Kaskara, each with historical evidence of copper, zinc, lead, silver, and critical metals like germanium and gallium.
Rock-chip sampling soon after acquisition returned exceptional results from oxidised sulphide gossans over a one-kilometre by 800-metre zone, including 38.3 per cent copper, 35.4 per cent zinc, 2,473 grams per tonne silver, and 97 grams per tonne germanium, along with highly anomalous antimony.
Grades like 38.3 per cent copper and 35.4 per cent zinc are exceptionally high for surface samples, far above the one to two per cent copper and five to ten per cent zinc typically considered mineable in many commercial operations.
The silver grade of 2,473 grams per tonne equates to about 2.47 kilograms of silver per tonne of material, worth roughly US$62 per tonne at current prices.
The germanium content — 97 grams per tonne — is especially significant.
Used in fibre-optic cables, infrared optics, night-vision devices, solar cells, and semiconductor chips, germanium is a critical mineral with a restricted global supply, dominated by China.
At about US$1,800 per kilogram, the 97 g/t assay translates to an in-situ value of around US$175 per tonne of ore just from germanium alone.
Historically produced as a byproduct of zinc and copper smelting, germanium in high-grade primary sources, such as those at Central Otavi, is rare.
Golden Deeps is now carrying out trenching and channel sampling to map the extent of mineralisation, expanding soil and rock-chip sampling grids to define the system’s footprint, and planning induced polarisation geophysical surveys to detect sulphide bodies beneath the surface. Drilling will follow on the highest-priority anomalies.
Meanwhile, work on the legacy EPLs continues.
At Abenab, metallurgical testing is refining recovery processes for vanadium, lead, and zinc.
At Nosib, the focus is on optimising the extraction of gallium, germanium, and antimony alongside copper, lead, and vanadium. Khusib Springs remains under review for additional copper-silver mineralisation.
From its first Namibian acquisition in 2012 through to its 2025 expansion, Golden Deeps has steadily invested in building a diversified portfolio of base and critical metals projects in one of Namibia’s most prospective mineral belts.
With over 400 square kilometres of ground under licence, a mix of new and historic targets, and a commodity suite that includes both industrial and high-tech metals, the company is well-positioned to play a significant role in Namibia’s next chapter of mineral development.
