Golden Deeps Limited (ASX:GED) has generated an exceptionally high-grade vanadium with zinc, lead and copper concentrate sample through gravity testwork on the company’s Abenab Project, located in Namibia’s highly-prospective Otavi Mountain Land.
The testwork produced an exceptionally high-grade descloizite ((Pb, Zn)2(OH)VO4) concentrate grading: 15.6% V2O5, 11.2% Zn, 38.2% Pb and 0.8% Cu.
CEO Jon Dugdale said this represents an 18 times upgrade of the representative drill-core composite sample, that had an assay head grade of 0.9% V2O5, 2.1% Pb and 0.7% Zn.
“The outstanding vanadium plus zinc, lead and copper concentrate grades produced from testwork on the Abenab deposit represent a major breakthrough for the company,” Mr Dugdale said.
“The testwork results open the door to replicating the process for the Nosib discovery and then completing downstream hydrometallurgical testwork to produce high-value battery metals products for the rapidly growing renewable energy battery storage industries globally.
“The results will also feed directly into our integrated mine development and processing study – a key stepping-stone towards realising our goal of developing production from the Company’s near-surface, high-grade, vanadium with copper, lead, zinc and silver deposits in the Otavi Mountain Land of northern Namibia.”
Mr Dugdale said the upgrade factor is above the targeted multiple of 15x and concentrate grades are similar to historical concentrate production grades from the Abenab Mine, which was known as the world’s richest and largest known deposit of vanadate ore, producing 176kt of very high-grade 16% V2O5, 13% Zn, 42% Pb concentrate from the 1920s to the 1950s.
The outcomes of both the gravity concentrate testwork and the downstream hydrometallurgical testwork will provide processing cost inputs (capital and operating) to be integrated with a new resource model for the Abenab deposit (in preparation by Shango Solutions), and an upgraded mining study (by Bara Consulting), to produce a scoping study for staged mining, gravity concentration and downstream processing of the high-grade Abenab high-grade V-Zn-Pb resource.
The Nosib Project is a new discovery that has produced a number of exceptional, thick and high-grade, vanadium-copper-lead-silver RC and diamond drilling intersections over the last 12 months.
Mineral Resource modelling and estimation is being carried out by Shango Solutions, focussed on the supergene vanadium-copper-lead-silver zone at Nosib.
Key operating and capital cost information will be derived from the metallurgical testwork in progress, on both projects, for input to the integrated mine development and processing study on the company’s near surface, high-grade, vanadium with copper, lead, zinc and silver deposits in the OMLCD.
For further information please visit: https://www.goldendeeps.com/
