Historical drilling beyond the fault and at greater depths than 400m revealed further silver-copper mineralisation, suggesting potential for an offset deposit towards the southwest and deeper levels.

According to work done by Shango for Golden Deeps in 2020, there is also potential for extra open-pitable material above the old workings, while work on the existing underground mine has highlighted the prospect of extracting some high-grade material around previous stoping.

Now that the spotlight has been pointed towards maximising the value of the silver mineralisation from the new zones at depth and to the west, the company will shortly plunge the drill bit into the potential extension of the orebody.

Additionally, with the portal and haul roads from earlier mining still intact, it now plans to deepen the existing old decline to help get access to the newly identified mineral-rich areas once drilling has been completed.

Management believes that Khusib Springs has similar geology to the well-known Tsumeb deposit, 40 km to the northwest because the silver-rich minerals - mostly tennantite – are localised but in a high-grade pipe-like body that plunges steeply within brecciated rocks.

With a massive resource of 27 million tonnes grading 4.3 per cent copper, 10 per cent lead, 3.5 per cent zinc and 95g/t silver Tsumeb is one of Namibia’s best-known mines. It was first discovered in 1907 and is notable for not only huge quantities of copper, lead, zinc and silver but also no less than 240 different other minerals of which 55 have never been registered as occurring elsewhere. The mine only closed in 1986 due to an economic downturn in commodity prices.

The new Khusib Springs silver equivalent resource adds to the previously announced numbers for Golden Deeps’ nearby 100 per cent owned Nosib and Abenab deposits which contain a mix of vanadium, copper, lead, zinc and silver. At Nosib, the total resource now stands at 707,600 tonnes running at 1.06 per cent copper equivalent while at the bigger Abenab prospect, its resource now stands at 2.3 million tonnes grading 1.11 per cent vanadium equivalent.

The newly remodelled mineral resource at Khusib Springs appears to reinforce its appeal in light of the rising silver price. Added to its promising Nosib and Abenab copper-vanadium deposits, Golden Deeps’ is on a pathway to building the foundations of a formidable resource base for possible future production.

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