BRITISH miner, Kavango Resources Plc, has confirmed the discovery of an open-pit gold deposit at the Nightshift Prospect, part of its Hillside Gold Project in Zimbabwe.
The discovery comes as Kavango has reverted to using the historic names of the first four gold prospects at its Hillside Project in southern Zimbabwe, from a total of six.
The names — Bill’s Luck, Britain, Nightshift, and Steenbok — apply to the previous internal references of Prospect 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively.
“Kavango Resources Plc, the Southern Africa-focused metals exploration and gold production company, is pleased to announce confirmation of an open-pit gold deposit at the Nightshift Prospect (Nightshift) on the Hillside Gold Project (Hillside), Zimbabwe,” Kavango said in a statement.
“Kavango considers Nightshift to be a gold deposit, with significant upside potential, that is expected to deliver high ore tonnes per vertical metre and high ounces per vertical metre. These factors combined support Kavango’s strategy to exploit its gold resources to their full potential and increase gold production via modern mechanised mining and processing methods.”
Kavango has three projects in Zimbabwe, with the firm focusing on its most promising project, Hillside, which consists of 44 gold claims covering 503 hectares. The other two mining projects are the Nara Gold and Leopard Projects.
The miner’s gold claims sit along the Filabusi Green Belt Zone, in the Matabeleland South Province, which holds a 10-million-ounce resource, with Kavango planning to develop it into a tier-one mine producing over 500 000 ounces annually.
Kavango said a preliminary Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC)-compliant Mineral Resource Estimation (the JORC MRE) had exceeded Kavango’s expectations.
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The company is now considering the construction of an upgraded 300 tonne-per-day (tpd) gold processing plant at Bills Luck Gold Mine, at the Hillside Project, up from the originally planned 200tpd capacity.
The JORC Code is a professional code of practice that sets the minimum standards for the public reporting of exploration results, mineral resources, and ore reserves in Australasia.
“Due to Nightshift’s large footprint, the first resource definition drill programme targeted an area that the Kavango team believed was the most representative portion of the prospect. The objective was to identify a near-surface gold deposit that could be brought into production immediately,” Kavango said.
“The JORC MRE reports a total resource of 19 000 ounces of gold (oz/Au) at 0,86 grammes per tonne (g/t), with 11 000 oz/Au in the Indicated category and 9 000oz/Au at 0,98g/t in the Inferred category.”
Nightshift is a gold deposit that Kavango believes can support open-pit mining in the short term and potentially underground mining in the future.
Nightshift covers at least a 700 metre strike length and is roughly 200m wide.
Kavango chief executive officer Matthew Turney said the maiden JORC resource at Nightshift was “a defining moment for Kavango”.
“It proves that our gold development strategy in Zimbabwe is working and that our decision to focus on near surface, fast-track production targets is delivering results,” he said.
“When we first started exploration at our Hillside Gold Project in summer 2023, our goal was to identify gold deposits that we could bring into production rapidly using modern mining and processing methods. This maiden resource is only the first step in what we believe will become a much larger resource base as exploration continues.”
Turney Kavango has in over two year advanced from initial discovery to defining a compliant open-pit resource capable of supporting near-term gold production.
