Across the copper hills and dolomitic valleys of northern Namibia, an old mining story is being written anew.
Once the domain of colonial pioneers and smelter barons, the Otavi Mountain Land — birthplace of Namibia’s modern mining industry — is now witnessing a quiet revival led by Golden Deeps Limited (ASX: GED).
The Australian explorer has pieced together a portfolio that links Namibia’s mining past with its future as a critical-metals producer.
From the century-old Abenab vanadium mine to the newly discovered Graceland copper prospect south of Tsumeb, Golden Deeps is reclaiming ground that once fed Europe’s furnaces — this time with tomorrow’s technologies in mind.
A century-old vanadium giant
The story begins near Grootfontein, where the Abenab Vanadium–Lead–Zinc Mine once stood as one of Africa’s most remarkable polymetallic deposits.
Discovered around 1910 and developed through the 1920s, Abenab produced high-grade vanadinite and descloizite concentrates, rich in vanadium, lead, and zinc.
For decades, its ore fed European steelworks, yielding more than 1.8 million tonnes averaging 1.05% V₂O₅, 3.85% Pb, and 1.7% Zn before closure in the 1950s.
When Golden Deeps entered Namibia in the mid-2010s, Abenab became its foundation asset.
The company acquired an 80 per cent interest through its Namibian subsidiary, Huab Energy (Pty) Ltd, leaving 20 per cent in local hands.
Extensive drilling, trenching and metallurgical studies have since re-defined the site’s potential, confirming a JORC-compliant resource of 2.8 million tonnes at 0.66% V₂O₅, 2.35% Pb and 0.94% Zn.
Test work has shown that the ore can yield a high-grade concentrate exceeding 20% V₂O₅ — placing Abenab back on the map as a potential supplier for vanadium batteries and alloy steels.
Today, the Abenab property serves as Golden Deeps’ operational hub, linking its historic mining ground with new exploration ventures across the Otavi belt.
Tracing a lost copper lode
West of Tsumeb, near the site of the famous Khusib Springs Mine, Golden Deeps is hunting the extensions of one of Namibia’s richest copper–silver deposits.
Khusib Springs, mined in the 1990s, produced about 300,000 tonnes at 10% Cu and 584 g/t Ag from a narrow but exceptionally high-grade breccia pipe.
The company’s Khusib North Project (EPL 8547) surrounds the old workings, where fresh soil sampling and magnetic surveys have identified anomalies suggesting that the mineralised pipe may continue under cover to the north.
Drill planning is underway to test whether the orebody extends at depth — a find that could re-ignite one of Namibia’s legendary copper mines.
Further along the belt lies Nosib, a small but historically significant mine first exploited in the 1940s for vanadium and copper.
Though production was limited, its geology proved unusual — oxidised dolomite breccias carrying vanadium, copper, lead, silver, gallium, germanium and antimony.
Golden Deeps’ modern re-evaluation confirmed that Nosib holds not just base metals but also critical and technology elements increasingly vital to renewable energy systems and electronics.
Sampling has revealed gallium and germanium grades above normal crustal levels, and metallurgical test work is focusing on the most effective methods to recover these minor yet high-value elements.
The adjoining Nosib West licence secures the mineralised strike extension to the west, where ongoing geochemical surveys are refining future drill targets.
Reviving the Tsumeb–Kombat Corridor
In 2024, Golden Deeps expanded its reach by acquiring Metalex Mining and Exploration (Pty) Ltd, taking an 80 per cent stake in a 400 km² tract of ground between Tsumeb and Kombat — a district long known for its rich carbonate-hosted ore systems.
The acquisition created the Central Otavi Project, uniting several prospects with distinct but complementary metal signatures: Border, Driehoek, Kaskara and Graceland.
This corridor sits within the Damara Orogen, a folded and faulted sequence of dolomitic marbles and breccias that host Namibia’s significant polymetallic deposits.
In the early and mid-20th century, the Otavi Mining and Railway Company and later the Tsumeb Corporation mined these rocks for copper, lead, zinc, and silver, feeding the smelter at Tsumeb, which became one of southern Africa’s industrial landmarks.
Golden Deeps is now using modern geophysics and geochemistry to revisit these same systems — but with an eye on critical metals and new energy applications.
Border, Driehoek and Kaskara: Re-examining the Classics
At Border, old Tsumeb Corporation drilling outlined a zinc–lead–silver resource within brecciated dolomite, never mined due to depth and market conditions.
Golden Deeps is re-logging the historical core and applying new geophysical techniques to trace sulphide extensions below the oxidised zone.
Nearby, the Driehoek Prospect lies on a central fold structure along the Otavi anticline.
Early explorers reported galena and sphalerite showings there; Golden Deeps’ soil sampling has now confirmed multi-element anomalies consistent with carbonate-replacement systems like those of Kombat.
Further south, the Kaskara Prospect reveals a mix of vanadium, copper, lead, zinc and germanium — a distinctive geochemical fingerprint linking it to both Abenab and Nosib.
The company plans an induced-polarisation survey to detect concealed sulphide lenses that could mark the next generation of ore in the belt.
The discovery south of Tsumeb
The most striking of Golden Deeps’ recent finds is the Graceland Prospect, about 20 kilometres south of Tsumeb.
Here, field teams have mapped a three-kilometre-long corridor of gossan and sulphide outcrops yielding spectacular grades: rock-chip assays of up to 47.3% copper, 7,792 g/t silver and 224 g/t germanium, and channel intersections including 3.5 m at 12.6% Cu, 79 g/t Ag and 2 m at 16.2% Cu, 442 g/t Ag.
The brecciated dolomite host rock and high germanium content are hallmarks of Tsumeb-type mineralisation — the same deep, pipe-like systems that once produced world-class copper–lead–zinc–silver ore to depths of 1,500 metres.
A detailed Induced Polarisation and Resistivity survey has now been completed over the corridor, identifying conductive zones to a depth of 300 metres. These anomalies will guide the first drilling programme planned for 2026.
New uranium ground
While the Otavi belt remains its focus, Golden Deeps has also turned west. Its subsidiary Huab Energy (Pty) Ltd has applied for three Exclusive Prospecting Licences south of Paladin Energy’s Langer Heinrich Mine in the Namib Desert. Satellite imagery indicates palaeochannels draining uranium-bearing granites — the same geological setting that hosts Langer Heinrich’s calcrete-type orebody.
The licences are currently under review by Namibia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy.
Golden Deeps’ Namibian operations are fully registered in-country and align with national empowerment rules. Abenab, Nosib and Khusib are held 80 per cent by Golden Deeps Ltd and 20 per cent by Namibian partners. Central Otavi (Metalex) is owned 80 per cent by Golden Deeps Ltd and 20 per cent by Namibian shareholders. Huab Energy (Uranium) is 100 per cent owned by Golden Deeps Ltd.
The company is headquartered in Perth, Western Australia, and is led by Managing Director Jon Dugdale, a geologist with more than three decades of African and Australian exploration experience.
Reawakening the Otavi Mountain Land
From the historic vanadium pits of Abenab to the promising gossans of Graceland, Golden Deeps is retracing the footsteps of Namibia’s earliest miners but with a modern objective.
Where the old explorers sought lead and copper, the company is uncovering a broader spectrum of metals — vanadium, gallium, germanium and silver — all vital to the clean-energy transition.
In breathing new life into century-old workings, Golden Deeps has not only revived the geology of the Otavi hills but re-established their place in Namibia’s economic story.
The mountains that once powered the country’s first smelters may soon help power its future technologies — a fitting new chapter in Namibia’s evolving mining legacy.
