Ongwe Minerals is preparing to launch its maiden 5,000-metre diamond drilling programme at the newly discovered Nguni gold prospect after defining a six-kilometre gold anomaly that the company believes has the scale to become Namibia’s next major gold discovery.
The Canadian explorer announced on 6 August that it has completed detailed soil sampling across the Nguni prospect at its Omatjete Gold Project, identifying a continuous 6km gold-in-soil anomaly that remains open to the north, east and west, suggesting the mineralised system could be considerably larger.
Nguni lies about 17 kilometres from Ongwe’s Manga Gold discovery and 55 kilometres east of Wia Gold’s Kokoseb Gold Deposit, placing it along the highly prospective Okondeka Fault Zone, one of Namibia’s emerging gold corridors.
The latest exploration programme completed an intensive 50-metre by 50-metre soil sampling grid, producing encouraging results that included 50 samples grading above 300 parts per billion (ppb) gold, with the highest returning 1,310ppb gold, a level the company says is comparable with soil anomalies recorded at Kokoseb before drilling confirmed a significant gold resource.
Chief executive officer Dave Underwood said the detailed sampling had confirmed Nguni as a robust exploration target with significant growth potential.
“The infill work on the Nguni prospect is now complete and it looks like a very robust target with scale potential. We are excited about initiating the first ever drill program at Nguni, and will be commencing with RC and diamond drilling in order to get detailed geological information in this area of very limited outcrop.”
The company plans to mobilise a diamond drill rig later this month for an initial 5,000-metre drilling campaign, targeting the core of the gold anomaly.
Operations will begin with a single rig, although Ongwe says additional rigs could be deployed as understanding of the geology and structural controls improves.
At the same time, the company is close to finalising land access agreements covering neighbouring farms to the north, east and west of Nguni.
Once these agreements are signed, exploration teams will extend the soil sampling programme beyond the current boundaries to determine the full extent of the mineralised system.
Geological mapping indicates the gold mineralisation is hosted in metasedimentary rocks adjacent to granitic contacts, closely resembling the geological setting of the nearby Kokoseb Gold Deposit.
The highest gold values occur in the northern and southern sections of the current sampling grid, both of which remain open beyond the areas tested to date.
Ongwe is also expanding exploration beyond Nguni. Field teams have begun systematic soil sampling along regional fault structures south and east of the prospect, while more than 80 kilometres of prospective strike within the broader Omatjete Gold Project remains untested.
Elsewhere in Namibia, the company reported that assay results are pending from drilling at the Belmont prospect within the Khorixas Gold Project, where recent reverse-circulation drilling intersected visually encouraging quartz veining and sulphide mineralisation. Additional sampling at the Manga Gold Discovery also remains under laboratory analysis as the company assesses the eastern extension of that system.
Ongwe currently holds three flagship gold projects in Namibia’s emerging Northwest Damara Gold Belt. The company was founded by members of the team behind Osino Resources’ Twin Hills discovery and says its strategy is to identify and rapidly advance new gold systems along the Okondeka Fault Zone.
