Canadian exploration unearths gold deposits in Kunene

A Canadian exploration company says it has discovered promising gold deposits in the Kunene region.

This follows positive results from Great Quest Gold Ltd’s maiden drilling campaign at its Belmont Project in the region.

Chief executive and executive chairman of Great Quest, Jed Richardson, says the Belmont Project is a Greenfield target with no historical record of gold mineralisation.

“Belmont was discovered in 2022 through surface geochemistry and currently comprises a zone of 72 square kilometres situated between two major regional structures – the Khorixas-Gaseneirob Thrust and the Belmont Thrust in Namibia,” he says.

Richardson says approximately 90% of the prospect is obscured by calcrete, and limited work had identified 15 target areas within the Belmont corridor.

“Multiple visible gold samples have been observed in surface rock chips,” he says.

“Extensive calcrete cover and a lack of detailed geophysical data, however, limited our understanding of mineralisation controls,” Richardson says.

Andreas Rompel, the president and vice president for exploration at the Canadian company, says: “The sheer size in strike kilometres, the presence of mineralised multiple and thick quartz veins, and the occurrence of visible gold encourage us to focus on Belmont with the next drilling campaigns.”

While exploration is booming with several projects lined up, Namibia’s gold output is mainly produced by QKR’s Navachab gold mine situated near Karibib, and B2Gold’s Otjikoto gold mine between Otjiwarongo and Otavi.

The Navachab gold mine has been in operation since 1984, while the Otjikoto gold mine is one of Namibia’s newer operations that commenced with production in 2015 and has since trebled Namibia’s gold output.

Chinese company Shanjin Gold International will soon start developing the Osino Resources’ Twin Hills Project in central Namibia.

Veston Malango, the chief executive of the Chamber of Mines of Namibia, welcomes the new developments in the mining sector.

“The mining industry is booming because the international commodity market is doing well, and there is so much demand for mineral commodities which we cannot satisfy, and the prices are good,” he says.

He says when that happens exploration booms as well, which is why there is an increase in exploration in Namibia, “which is good news”.

Malango urges more Namibians to be more active in exploration instead of sitting on exploration licences.

“We have seen people coming from overseas to do exploration in Namibia, because exploration is business.

“It’s not that they have money, but they come to Namibia to make money. All they need is the skills to raise capital, and Namibians should be trained on how to raise capital,” he says.

Great Quest Gold Ltd is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on developing high-potential gold and lithium projects in Namibia, Morocco, and Mali.

The company’s flagship asset is the Damara Gold Project in Namibia, which includes the Khorixas, Omatjete and Outjo projects, covering over 300 000 hectares.

– email:matthew@namibian.com.na