Golden Deeps (GED), a mining company focused on the exploration and development of vanadium, lead, and zinc projects, has announced a significant breakthrough at its Abenab project in Namibia.
The Australian listed company recently completed gravity testwork, which yielded an exceptionally high-grade concentrate sample grading 15.6% vanadium oxide, 11.2% zinc, 38.2% lead, and 0.8% copper.
This represents an upgrade of 18 times higher than the drill core composite sample, which had an assay head grade of 0.9% vanadium oxide, 2.1% lead, and 0.7% zinc.
According to CEO Jon Dugdale, these results match historical concentrate production grades from the Abenab mine, which was once regarded as the world’s “richest and largest known” deposit of vanadate ore.
He went on to say that these results represent a “major breakthrough” for the company, and open the door to replicating the process for the nearby Nosib discovery.
The company plans to complete downstream hydrometallurgical testwork to produce high-value battery metals products for the rapidly growing renewable energy battery storage industries globally.
“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,” Dugdale said.
Golden Deeps is now progressing metallurgical testwork on bulk samples from the nearby Nosib discovery.
The gravity and metallurgical testwork will be integrated into an updated resource model for Abenab and an upgraded mining study to produce a scoping study.
The Abenab Vanadium-Lead-Zinc Project is located within the Otavi Mountain Lands of Northern Namibia, and covers a total land area of 102.51km², with the company owning an 80% interest in all associated tenements.