Modern Mining September 2018

MINING News

Drilling on the Karibib Gold Trend (photo: Osino Resources).

Osino discovers major gold trend in Namibia

Osino Resources Corp, a Namibian-focused exploration company, has reported the dis- covery of a major new gold-bearing trend located in the southern central zone of the Damara orogenic belt, stretching from the producing Navachab gold mine to Osino’s Okapawe target, more than 40 km to the north-east. According to the company, the Karibib Gold Trend is defined by a large-scale, deep, basin margin structure (the Karibib Fault) which is visible in the regional aero- magnetic data. It has been sampled over a strike length of 20 km to date and contin-

ues for a further 30 km to the south-west. A number of significant soil anomalies (Twin Hills, OJW and Okapawe) have been discovered along the fault zone which appears to be mineralised throughout its length. The soil anomalies are in the range of 100 to 400 ppb gold against a background of less than 5 ppb and are between 1 km and 4 km in length following the regional north-east trend. The mineralised pros- pects occur in association with splays, bends and syn-tectonic granite intrusions, typical of fertile orogenic belts. the regional market, including Botswana and South Africa, and entering the interna- tional seaborne thermal coal export market. Minergy owns 100 % of the 390 Mt Masama coal project in the Mmamabula coalfield in south-west Botswana, 50 km north of Gaborone. The opencast, low strip ratio mine has the potential to produce 2,4 Mt/a of coal within a year of opening. The granting of the mining licence fol- lows the completion of a feasibility study and the authorisation of the Environmental Impact Statement by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) in Botswana. Following dispensation from the DEA,

The remaining portion from Twin Hills to the Navachab gold mine is currently being explored and Osino says that further discoveries are considered likely. In a previous press release (dated 11 July, 2018) issued by Osino, the gold corridor was referred to as the Khan River Gold Corridor as it was initially named when the presence of a mineralised system was noted near the Khan River, which is a significant local feature. This has now been changed to the KaribibGoldTrend to reflect its growing and more regional extent. In the coming months, Osino will focus certain pre-construction work has already commenced on site at Masama. This will allow Minergy to have the final mine com- missioning in January 2019 and to be producing its first saleable coal the follow- ing month. According to CEO Andre Bojé , the award, whilst delayed, is a significant mile- stone in Minergy’s journey: “The licence is critical for Minergy to continue as a busi- ness. This will be the first opencast coal mining licence granted by the Government of Botswana, so the process was not with- out its challenges for both parties. However, Government was so confident in our eco- nomic model that we were never in doubt that these could be overcome.” 

Minergy receives mining licence for Masama Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE)-listed Minergy Limited, a coal mining and trad- ing company, has been granted a mining licence by Botswana’s Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security. This marks a significant step for- ward for the company, which listed on the BSE in April 2017 and is seeking a listing on London’s AIM during 2019.

The award is later than the projected timeline of mid-2018 for the granting of the licence as announced when the company listed. However, this is a substantial step forward in terms of Minergy’s intention of focusing on delivering high-quality coal to

8  MODERN MINING  September 2018