Drilling at Nxuu, Kihabe deposits affected by Covid restrictions

Mont Burgess has announced that the COVID- 19 pandemic restrictions affected the company’s development projects at its Nxuu and Kihabe deposit.

The announcement was made by the company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Nigel Forrester at the annual general meeting this week, citing that the impediment was particularly to do with employee access to the deposits and return to Western Australia.

“However, further drilling was conducted at the Nxuu Deposit, sufficient for an initial 2012 JORC Code Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate. A 2012 JORC Code Indicated and Inferred resource was estimated for the Kihabe Deposit, seven km to the West of the Nxuu Deposit,” Forrester.

He said the Nxuu Deposit is seen as 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.

Forrester further said Nxuu Deposit being such a shallow low risk and totally oxidized deposit, the Company intends to develop it first.

Last month, Mount Burgess reported significant intersections of copper, germanium and gallium ( Cu, Ge and Ga) at the project.

According to the company, the discoveries include a continuous 91m intersection at 12.6g/ t Ga, in KDD201. “However, these metals have not been included in the Kihabe Mineral Resource Estimate, and further in- fill drilling is required to determine the continuity of Cu mineralisation for a mineral resource estimate,” said Forrester. He said the further in- fill drilling is also required to enable further assaying for Ge and Ga, which have only been included in assaying to a limited extent to date.

“Only then can germanium and gallium be included in the mineral resource estimate,” Forrester said. The international laboratory technicians confirmed existence of rare mineral species at Mount Burgess’ Kihabe Deposit, last year. The announcement came on the backdrop of the upward spiraling copper prices, which motivated revaluation of mineral resource estimate at Kihabe deposit.

According to the company, encouraging results from mineralogical test work conducted by the Department of Earth Sciences, Naples University, Italy and ALS Laboratories, Western Australia on samples containing Vanadium from the oxide zone of the Kihabe Deposit, have shown that the dominant host for Vanadium is the lead- zinc- vanadium oxide mineral Descloizite.

Descloizite is a rare mineral species consisting of basic lead and zinc vanadate, crystallizing in the orthorhombic crystal system and isomorphous with olivenite.

The hype at Mont Burgess over base metals explorations also comes after government renewed the company’s prospecting licence of Kihabe/ Nxuu during the last quarter of 2020.

The renewal was the second for prospecting licence PL 43/ 2016, for a further two years, to 31 December 2022. 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.