African Pioneer has announced fundraising of £420,000 from existing shareholders and new investors to facilitate the advancement of the Ongombo copper-gold project in Namibia.
The Ongombo copper-gold project is 20 km from the Otjihase mine on the Matchless Copper Belt.
African Pioneer has an 85% interest in EPL 5772, 40 km NE of the city of Windhoek, Khomas Region, Namibia.
The net proceeds from the fundraising will be used to analyse the gold distribution and its association with copper and/or magnetite quartzite at the Ongombo project in Namibia.
The money will also be used for engagement with external mining and resource advisers who have provided updated resource estimates for the open pit mineralisation and will offer recommendations to infill drilling and collar locations to maximise global resource increases.
The company wants to plan discussions with preferred contractors for open pit and underground mining and build a database of unit costs for key components of the mine plan to update the financial model.
In addition, the funds will be used to produce scheduling for the 930kt open pit and to come up with a detailed assessment using external advisers reviewing a range of development options (tpa, processing methodology to be employed, expected Capex and Opex), leading to the presentation of a proposed development plan to the board.
The updated mineral resource estimates for the Ongombo project, revised by Addison Mining Services (AMS) and reported on May 16, 2023, delineate a potential combined open pit and underground mining operation based on JORC-2012 resources of 5.7 Mt at 1.1% copper equivalent, 0.94% copper, and 0.23 g/t gold (indicated) (gross).
This resource includes 930 Kt at 0.57% copper and 0.19 g/t gold open pit potential resource believed to be amenable to a’starter’ mine using lower-cost open pit methods.
Significantly, the AMS update reports previously unstated inferred underground potential resources of 23 at 0.95% copper and 0.24 g/t gold.
