Canada-listed Ongwe Minerals has commenced its maiden drilling programme at the newly discovered Nguni gold prospect within the Omatjete Gold Project.
According to a statement issued by the company’s chief executive, Dave Underwood, on Tuesday, two drill rigs have been mobilised for the inaugural drilling campaign at the Nguni prospect – a high-grade gold-in-soil anomaly discovered in May.
“The central portion of the Nguni gold anomaly has now been closely defined by infill soil sampling, with 50 soil samples above 300ppb (parts per billion) gold, peaking at 1.310ppb gold.
“This represents a 6km long, high-grade soil anomaly similar in scale and tenor to the anomaly at the neighbouring Kokoseb gold deposit before it was drilled,” Underwood says.
“We are now embarking on the maiden, fully funded drill programme at this exciting target,” he says, adding that a diamond drill rig has been mobilised to test the highest-grade portion of the anomaly for detailed geological, structural and mineralogical information that would better guide the follow-on drill programme.
The Nguni gold anomaly was discovered along the Okondeka Fault System where the area is flat-lying and very little outcrop is visible.
“The gold anomaly lies along narrow zones of meta-sediments between late to post-orogenic granites and appears to be in-situ within residual soils,” Underwood says.
A two-pronged drill programme has been planned in which a diamond drill programme of about 18 holes for 3 500m initially will start in the northwest corner of the anomaly and cover the higher-grade soils in the northwestern and southeastern portions.
“A scout drill programme of about 1 500m using an RC rig is aimed at first pass testing of the lower priority targets to establish economic potential and priority,” Underwood says.
Either or both programmes will be expanded or modified as indicated by the logging and assay results, he says.
Meanwhile, a diamond drilling programme of five holes for 1 000m is planned for the Manga East extension, with an average planned depth of 200m.
“The initial holes will be oriented and drilled towards the northwest, but drill parameters may be modified by the detailed logging,” he says.
The company also plans to undertake a calcrete sampling programme to trace gold mineralisation beneath the calcrete cover east of the current bedrock sampling extent.
If the calcrete results confirm that the mineralised trend continues, the company will use follow-up bedrock sampling to refine the target before testing it with diamond drilling.
The Manga prospect was discovered during the initial regional Omatjete soil sampling programme carried out in the fourth quarter of 2024.
