Drilling commences at Ongombo

Namibian CopperNL recently announced the commencement of drilling activities at its Ongombo copper-silver project. Drilling activities were anticipated to be carried out in the first half of 2014 but were since shelved because of persistent rain received at the start of 2014 Namibian CopperNL  announced in March this year.
Namibian CopperNL Chief Executive Officer, Lachlan Reynolds said, “The drilling programme comprising approximately 23 drill holes for 2,400 metres of reverse circulation percussion drilling and 700 metres of diamond drill core is planned to test near-surface mineralisation in the Central Shoot of the Ongombo deposit.”
According to Reynolds, drilling activities are expected to take 8 weeks to complete and assay results will be available for weeks after drilling activities have been completed. Reynolds added that the drilling activities will bolster support for ongoing feasibility studies for mining development and to test for extensions of the mineral resource. He said, “Results of the work will be used to refine Namibian Copper’s development strategy for the Ongombo deposit.”

In its quarterly activities report for March 2014, Namibian CopperNL  states that drilling to date has not delineated the full extent of the Ongombo deposit. The aim of the drilling programme is to test the down- plunge and up-dip of known mineralisation. In addition, Namibian CopperNL expects some infill drilling would significantly increase the resource tonnage, increase the quality of the JORC resource classification, and increase the mineral inventory: resource ratio for future feasibility studies. According to Namibian CopperNL, the Ongombo deposit comprises JORC compliant Measured and Indicated resources of 6.7 metric tons at 1.5% copper, 8 grams per ton silver and 0.3 grams per ton gold. [at a 0.6% Cu cut-off grade]; and an Inferred resource of 3.8 metric tons at 1.7% copper, 0.9 grams per ton silver and 0.3 grams per ton gold. An independent Scoping Study completed in 2013 by Coffey Mining suggested that the project has potential to be developed as an underground mining operation.
The Ongombo project is located approximately 45 kilometres to the northeast of Windhoek.