Perth-based Noronex is set to begin a drilling campaign in Namibia to uncover a prospective copper discovery buried under the famed Kalahari Desert sands.
The company says it has mobilised a rig for an initial 2000m diamond drilling program at its Helm Prospect, part of the Snowball Project in the burgeoning Kalahari copper belt.
The David Prentice-led company’s 5,600sqm interest area, whilst largely unexplored, sits between established copper mines and deposits to the west and east along the renowned NPF-D’Kar formation.
The company’s tenements contain about 300km of strike length and the upcoming program is targeting a formation where much of the region’s copper deposits occur.
It is great to have the rig active again in our Snowball Joint Venture with a number of diamond holes planned to test the most prospective covered target zones at the Helm domal target.
Approvals continue to progress for testing the remainder of the large tenement package targeting large sedimentary copper targets in the Kalahari copper belt.
Noronex’s exploration package in Namibia now covers over 5,600 square kilometres of the highly prospective but relatively underexplored Kalahari copper belt which runs from central Namibia to northern Botswana.
Noronex chief geologist Bruce Hooper
The Namibia subsidiary of Mitchell Drilling International has been engaged to undertake the work off the back of its experience east of Snowball in the Botswana portion of the copper belt.
Upwards of 80 metres of sand will be drilled through in order to reach the target.
With drilling imminent at Snowball, Noronex will next year turn its focus back to the Witvlei Project to the south to test intercepts below shallow, high-grade, copper mineralisation made earlier this year during drilling.
The project has an inferred and indicated resource across four deposits of 10Mt at 1.3 per cent copper, with shallow near-surface sulphide mineralisation.
Environmental clearance and traditional authority approvals have also been obtained east of Snowball at the company’s Humpback prospect, paving the way for the granting of tenements, access deals and work commencement.
The Kalahari copper belt stretches some 1000km from eastern Namibia to northeast Botswana and has so far proven a happy hunting ground for those with interests in the area.
Neighbours include fellow Australian Sandfire Resources, which has three mines hosted in the same structure Noronex is currently targeting.
Cupric Canyon’s Zone 5 mine, also along the NPF-D’Kar contact, carries a 168Mt resource at 2.1 per cent copper.
Mining giant Rio Tinto has also pegged ground south of Noronex’s interests.
With established copper plays already proving the merit of the Kalahari copper belt and a global behemoth on its doorstep, Noronex will be eager to see exactly what is hiding under its own sandpit in the famed African desert.
