Ongwe Minerals has identified a 2km-long gold anomaly, up to 125 metres wide, with bedrock values of up to 0.2 g/t gold at its Belmont Prospect along the Khorixas Fault Zone, with drilling planned to test the target.
The Vancouver-listed explorer said the newly identified “Plains” anomaly lies beneath thick alluvial and calcrete cover, in an area previously inaccessible to conventional surface sampling, marking a discovery within Namibia’s emerging Northwest Damara Gold Belt.
The target was outlined through a bedrock sampling campaign comprising 3,970 metres of drilling across 639 vertical holes on a 25m by 200m grid, with each hole drilled through sediment and calcrete before intersecting bedrock.
The mineralisation is associated with iron-carbonate alteration and disseminated sulphides along the Khorixas Fault Zone, a key structural corridor interpreted to control gold-bearing fluid flow.
“The initial bedrock sampling program at Belmont has produced what we were hoping for, a coherent and extensive zone of bedrock alteration and mineralization along the Khorixas Fault,” chief executive Dave Underwood said.
He said the company has now defined a “strong walk-up drill target” along a basin-margin structure, with diamond drilling expected to follow once sampling is completed.
Although the current results returned relatively low-grade values, the company said this was consistent with the sampling method, which is designed to identify broader mineralised systems rather than isolate high-grade veins.
The presence of high-grade quartz vein samples in nearby outcrops, however, points to the potential for higher-grade zones within the anomaly.
The Belmont Prospect forms part of Ongwe’s wider Namibian portfolio, which includes the Khorixas, Omatjete and Outjo projects covering more than 350,000 hectares in the northwest of the country.
The Omatjete Project lies about 30km along strike from Wia Gold’s Kokoseb discovery, while the Outjo Project shares geological similarities with Osino Resources’ discoveries.
Exploration has now shifted to the Manga target at Omatjete, where between 2,000 and 3,000 metres of additional bedrock sampling is planned, with about 1,500 metres already completed and assay results pending.
The company expects to complete the current sampling programme by the end of April, with all outstanding assay results due by the end of May, ahead of a planned diamond-drilling campaign to test the Belmont targets.
