Thamage joins Mount Burgess board
... prospecting license extended by a further two years
Season mining industry engineer, Jacob Thamage has been appointed nonexecutive director of Mount Burgess Mining, the developers of Kihabe- Nxuu project.
Thamage is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Botswana Diamond Hub, appointed in July 2021 and was also recently appointed the International Chairman of the Kimberley Process.
He has been appointed to Mount Burgess board alongside Ian Barclay McGeorge a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and a chartered geologist.
McGeorge is Principal Consultant and co- owner of iQuest Geology, a geological consultancy based in Gaborone with many years of experience of prospecting, having been involved in exploration for diamonds, gold, copper, nickel, iron ore, lithium, and industrial minerals, as well as supervising exploration and resource development on Kihabe- Nxuu project.
Commenting on the appointment, Mount Burgess Chief Executive Officer, Nigel Forrester said the board now includes two mining engineers - Harry Warries and Jacob Thamage, a metallurgist - Rob Brougham and a geologist - Ian Barclay McGeorge.
The new board’s appointment comes on the backdrop of the Ministry of Minerals and Energy granting renewal of prospecting license for Kihabe- Nxuu projects.
Situated in the country’s North- West district in Western Ngamiland, the prospecting license PL043/ 2016 has been extended by a further two years.
The total 29.3 million tonnes of the Kihabe and Nxuu Mineral Resource estimates contain the following metal: zinc metal, lead metal, silver metal, vanadium pentoxide metal, gallium metal and germanium metal.
Despite the company’s efforts to develop the mine during the last prospecting license, COVID- 19 pandemic restrictions affected developments at Nxuu and Kihabe deposits.
Forrester said the impediment was particularly on employee’s access to the deposits and return to Western Australia.
However, Forrester remains optimistic that Nxuu Deposit is a low risk, low cost, shallow, basin shaped deposit where mineralisation occurs in a totally oxidized Quartz Wacke, embedded in a barren Dolostone basin.
“With the recent increase in prices of gallium and germanium, it is believed that these two metals, now seen as modern strategic metals, will make significant contributions to the project,” said Forrester.
Under the Mines and Minerals Act, prospecting licences are issued for an initial three year period with the right to apply for further two year renewals before any extensions are applied for.