Golden Deeps has started shallow test drilling at its Graceland critical metals discovery in the Otavi Mountain Land.
The drilling is being carried out using a light-weight, man-portable diamond drilling rig, allowing the company to test targets developed from extensive surface work cost-effectively and flexibly.
Graceland is located about 20 kilometres south of the historic Tsumeb copper mine, within one of southern Africa’s most prolific polymetallic belts.
Graceland forms part of Golden Deeps’ Central Otavi Critical Metals Project, which lies within the Otavi Mountain Land Metallogenic Belt.
The belt hosts some of Namibia’s most significant historic mines, including Tsumeb, which produced approximately 27 million tonnes of ore grading 4.3% copper, 10% lead, 3.5% zinc, 95 g/t silver and 50 g/t germanium.
This geological setting is widely regarded as capable of hosting very high-grade polymetallic sulphide systems.
The decision to commence drilling follows an intensive period of surface exploration that outlined a large mineralised corridor at Graceland measuring about 2.5 kilometres in strike length and roughly one kilometre in width.
Rock-chip sampling across multiple gossan and sulphide occurrences within this corridor returned exceptionally high grades, including copper values of up to 50.6%, silver up to 7,792 g/t, zinc up to 38.3%, lead up to 34.2% and germanium up to 224 g/t.
A second gossan corridor delivered copper grades of up to 29% and silver exceeding 3,000 g/t.
Channel sampling confirmed that mineralisation occurs across meaningful widths rather than as isolated surface enrichment.
Results included 3.5 metres grading 12.6% copper and 79 g/t silver, including one metre at 20.1% copper, as well as three metres grading 11.2% copper and 294 g/t silver, including a half-metre interval grading 26.2% copper with strong zinc, lead and germanium credits.
The shallow drilling programme is designed to test the immediate depth extensions of the gossan zones.
Early drilling intersected mineralised, sheared, and silicified dolomite hosting semi-massive chalcocite and copper carbonates, confirming that the surface mineralisation extends below outcrop.
The company plans to systematically test multiple gossan positions along strike to assess continuity and thickness.
In parallel with drilling, Golden Deeps has completed an induced polarisation and resistivity survey across most of the Graceland corridor.
The survey comprised 19 pole-dipole lines spaced 100 metres apart, with additional infill lines completed over the eastern portion of the project where the highest-grade surface results were recorded.
The data identified multiple chargeability and low-resistivity anomalies that may represent sulphide mineralisation at depth.
The geophysical results are undergoing independent review, after which three-dimensional modelling will be completed.
This modelling will integrate geophysical data with drilling, channel sampling and surface geochemistry to refine targets for deeper drilling aimed at discovering Tsumeb-style sulphide bodies beneath the gossan zones.
Additional soil and rock chip sampling has extended the known mineralised corridor to more than 3 kilometres in strike length.
A total of 267 soil samples and 13 new mineralised rock-chip samples have been collected and submitted for analysis, with results expected in early 2026.
These results are expected to refine drill targeting further ahead of deeper drilling phases.
Golden Deeps holds six Exclusive Prospecting Licences covering more than 440 square kilometres in the Otavi Mountain Land.
Beyond Graceland, the company has defined mineral resources at the Abenab vanadium project, the Nosib vanadium-copper-lead-silver deposit and the Khusib Springs silver-copper deposit.
It continues to generate additional targets prospective for copper, zinc, lead, silver and critical metals such as germanium and gallium.
With drilling now underway, Graceland marks a transition from surface discovery to subsurface testing for Golden Deeps.
The combination of exceptional surface grades, confirmation of mineralisation at shallow depth and strong geophysical targets positions the project as one of the more closely watched exploration plays currently emerging from Namibia’s Otavi Mountain Land.
