Great Quest Gold Ltd., a Canadian-listed exploration company, is advancing systematic gold exploration in the Khorixas area of northwestern Namibia under its Damara Gold Project.
The programme marks the first structured modern exploration effort in this part of the northern Damara Orogenic Belt in more than half a century.
The company entered Namibia in August 2023 through a joint venture with Belmont Mineral Exploration (Pty) Ltd., a Namibian company that holds a portfolio of 14 exclusive prospecting licences.
The partnership granted Great Quest a 25 per cent interest in Belmont and operational control of fieldwork. Under the terms of the agreement, Great Quest made a US$60,000 payment and committed to spend US$1.4 million on exploration over two years.
Together, the licences cover about 307,000 hectares across the Khorixas, Outjo, and Omatjete districts.
The Khorixas block lies within the northern Damara Orogen, a region composed of metamorphic schists, marbles, and calc-silicate rocks cut by pegmatite and dolerite dykes.
These rock units are known to host orogenic-style gold mineralisation along quartz-carbonate veins and shear zones rich in sulphides such as pyrite and arsenopyrite.
German colonial geologists H. Martin and A. Range first recorded gold-bearing quartz veins near Omaruru and Khorixas in the early 1900s, but the area saw little systematic follow-up. No historical drilling has been recorded in the Khorixas district, despite its favourable geology.
Before Great Quest’s entry, the exploration licences were fully owned by Belmont Mineral Exploration, which obtained them between 2019 and 2022.
The permits were granted for precious and base metals, reflecting the polymetallic nature of the northern Damara Belt. Belmont carried out early reconnaissance work that included regional mapping to outline major structures and metamorphic contacts, as well as limited rock-chip and soil sampling to determine background gold and arsenic levels.
Satellite imagery and remote sensing were used to locate potential alteration zones and quartz-carbonate vein systems. The company also compiled and digitised historical geological data from colonial survey archives.
The geochemical sampling returned several gold–arsenic anomalies, confirming the presence of mineralised structures, although no trenching or drilling was done.
Belmont subsequently obtained environmental clearance certificates for low-impact exploration from the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, ensuring compliance with Namibian ecological standards.
By 2023, the company sought a technical partner to advance exploration beyond surface sampling. Great Quest completed due diligence on the licences and datasets before formalising its joint venture in August 2023.
After assuming operational control, Great Quest began digitising Belmont’s geological and geochemical records into a modern GIS database and prepared a new exploration plan.
The company is conducting systematic geological mapping and soil geochemical surveys to refine previously identified anomalies, followed by airborne magnetic and radiometric surveys to locate structural features linked to gold deposition.
Ground verification and trenching are being planned to confirm the geophysical results, after which shallow reverse-circulation drilling will be used to test the strongest targets.
Recent fieldwork by Great Quest has returned encouraging early assays. In the Khorixas block, the company collected 38 rock-chip samples, which produced consistently high-grade values, including peak assays above 10 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 4.47 per cent copper, and 13.4 g/t silver, with trace amounts of 153 ppm uranium and 371 ppm molybdenum.
These results were supported by a broader soil and calcrete sampling programme totalling 2,515 samples, and 1,543 line-kilometres of drone-based magnetic surveying across the same ground.
At the Omatjete project, Great Quest identified a new gold-bearing system along the Okondeka Fault Zone. Channel and rock samples from sulphide-rich quartz veins showed anomalous gold values consistent with an extensive structurally controlled system.
The company has also reported drilling intercepts at its BK2 target of 18 metres at 1.72 g/t gold, including 8 metres at 3.72 g/t, verified by screen fire assay to account for nugget effects.
According to company filings, Great Quest expects to complete the first-pass drilling programme in late 2025. Should drilling confirm continuity of mineralisation, the company will follow with diamond drilling and 3D modelling to declare a maiden mineral resource by 2026.
All work is managed by Great Quest’s technical team in partnership with Belmont’s Namibian geologists, with a field base established near Khorixas and oversight provided by the Environmental Commissioner.
Great Quest’s long-term objective is to evaluate whether the Khorixas licences can support near-surface, open-pit gold deposits similar in style to other orogenic systems within the Damara Belt.
The company is integrating data from Khorixas with its work at Outjo and Omatjete to develop a regional geological model of the northern Damara corridor.
Once sufficient data are available, this model will guide further drilling priorities and the next stage of resource assessment.
At present, Great Quest’s Khorixas project remains in the exploration phase but represents the most advanced component of its Namibian portfolio.
The ongoing field programme is expected to deliver the first subsurface testing of this ground since the early twentieth century, potentially reviving Namibia’s oldest gold district as part of a new generation of discoveries.
