Canadian explorer Ongwe Minerals Inc. has extended gold mineralisation at its Manga prospect in Namibia to more than 2km after drilling 387 bedrock holes and returning assays of up to 470 parts per billion gold beneath thick calcrete cover.
The company said Monday that mineralisation at the Manga prospect within the Omatjete Gold Project is widening and increasing in grade toward the east, with the easternmost completed drill line intersecting more than 80 metres of mineralisation grading above 200ppb gold.
Ongwe said the latest drilling confirms a well-defined in-situ gold anomaly stretching over 2km, with the rig still operating on the eastern extension of the target.
The company added that mineralisation remains open to the east beneath calcrete cover exceeding 10 metres in some areas, reaching a maximum thickness of 15 metres.
Fire assay results received so far range from background levels to 470 ppb gold, with 20 samples returning values above 100 ppb.
Chief executive Dave Underwood said the results confirmed the company’s expectation that the mineralised system continues beneath the calcrete cover east of the known soil anomaly.
“The surface soil anomaly dissipates towards the east, however by using the well proven bedrock sampling technique we have been able to define a significant expansion of mineralisation at the Manga prospect under cover,” Underwood said.
He said earlier that scout reverse circulation drilling conducted after the initial discovery in late 2024 had unknowingly targeted ground more than one kilometre west of what now appears to be the start of higher-grade mineralisation.
“When the Manga surface discovery was first made in late 2024, a series of scout RC holes were drilled across the centre of the anomaly, which intercepted wide, low-grade mineralisation. It is now clear that these holes were drilled more than 1km west of the start of higher-grade mineralisation,” Underwood said.
The company has since expanded the bedrock sampling programme eastward to continue tracing the mineralised system hidden beneath soil and calcrete cover.
“This is an exciting development, and we’ve decided to extend the bedrock sampling program to keep chasing the mineralisation which is hidden under soil & calcrete cover. We will also test blind magnetic targets now that we know there is thick calcrete cover (>10m) in some areas,” Underwood said.
Underwood linked the exploration approach at Manga to the methods used during the discovery of Osino Resources’ Twin Hills gold deposit in Namibia while serving as Osino’s vice president of exploration between 2016 and 2024.
“As VP Exploration at Osino Resources between 2016 and 2024, we pioneered and successfully used this exploration technique which ultimately resulted in the large-scale Twin Hills gold discovery,” he said.
“Just like at Manga, there was low grade gold mineralisation at surface which disappeared along strike under thick calcrete cover. The larger shoots of higher grade, economic mineralisation at Twin Hills were found between 2.5 and 5km along strike using bedrock sampling and detailed magnetics, just like we are doing at Ongwe.”
The Manga prospect forms part of Ongwe’s 151,800-hectare Omatjete Gold Project, located about 40km along strike from WIA Gold’s Kokoseb discovery within Namibia’s emerging northwest Damara gold belt.
Ongwe also controls the 154,000-hectare Khorixas Gold Project, which hosts the Belmont Prospect, and the 46,000-hectare Outjo Gold Project near Osino Resources’ Eureka discovery.
The company said it has completed 3,766 metres of reverse circulation bedrock sampling at Manga, bringing total RC drilling across the Manga and Belmont prospects to 7,736 metres.
Regional soil sampling is also continuing across the wider Omatjete licence package as the company advances exploration across more than 150,000 hectares in Namibia’s northwest Damara belt.
