By Benjamin Wickham
WINDHOEK, MARCH 9 — Noronex, an ASX-listed Perth copper explorer, has reported positive results from its ongoing drilling program in Namibia, specifically at the Helm prospect within its Snowball joint venture project. The Kalahari copper belt in Namibia is regarded as highly prospective but relatively under-explored. Noronex has several interests along the belt and its latest drilling campaign has so far seen four holes completed to test the antiformal structure “domal” target, hitting depths ranging from 245.3m to 401.28m. The fresh drilling intersected between 50m and 60m of Kalahari sands and calcrete above the weathered D’Kar Ngwako Pan formation sandstone.
The company noted that the program successfully tested the prospective target horizon in three holes so far, intersecting a sheared-reducing black shale horizon as predicted on the contact with the Ngwako Pan Formation sandstone. Assays are pending with only minor anomalous visible copper noted so far and minimal sulphide mineralisation noted.
The plan is for a fifth hole to be re-entered and deepened to test the target horizon after the recovery of a lost core barrel. Noronex’s diamond drill rig will then be moved southwest to the Witvlei project with the intention to drill a 400m hole at the Dalheim prospect to test the central core of recently defined mineralisation.
Noronex hit the ASX board in late 2020 with the aim of using new technology and exploration techniques to unearth copper from its bundle of tenements in Namibia and Canada. The company is also keen to explore its extensive claim package to the east of Witvlei, including the domal structure at the Helm prospect and the Humpback project.
Noronex’s total granted licence area in Namibia has increased by 138% to 5637 square kilometres after new exploration prospecting licences were approved on the Kalahari copper belt. Noronex’s tenements contain approximately 300km of strike length targeting the key NPF-D’Kar formation contact point where most copper deposits occur on the Kalahari copper belt.
Despite recent rate hikes by central banks and hawkishness by the US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, as well as a relatively modest growth forecast coming out of China in recent days, copper prices remain high due to supply issues in South America and higher medium and long-term demand thanks to copper’s critical role in the “green” energy revolution.
Noronex believes the area where Namibia meets Botswana is highly prospective. Further along, the Kalahari copper belt sits the Zone 5 mine and copper deposit in Botswana, boasting 168 million tonnes at 2.1% copper. Zone 5 is ultimately owned by Cupric Canyon Capital, which has a plan for a 22-year-long mine ramping up to 60,000 tonnes per annum of copper. To the southwest of Zone 5, Sandfire Resources is also developing its Motheo deposit with its 53 million tonnes going 0.9% copper. Sandfire plans a 10-year mine, starting at 3.2 million tonnes per annum and rising to 5.2 million tonnes each year. Noronex says its drilling at Helm has revealed numerous quartz-calcite veins with pyrite and pyrrhotite like those at Sandfire’s Motheo deposit.
In conclusion, Noronex’s latest drilling program has delivered positive results, and the company’s focus on copper appears to be well-founded, given the critical role copper plays in the green energy revolution. – Namibia Daily News
