Adolf Kaure
Ongwe Minerals have confirmed that the bedrock drilling at the Manga gold prospect is a well-defined, 2km long, in-situ gold anomaly with the rig still active at the eastern extension of the Manga prospect.
This was confirmed during a recent statement by Ongwe Minerals reporting on results from the Manga prospect bedrock drilling program currently ongoing at the Omatjete Gold Project.
This is one of Ongwe’s three flagship Namibian gold Projects, namely Omatjete, Khorixas and the Outjo Gold Project. Fire assay results for bedrock samples from Manga have been received. The assay results received range from background to the highest value of 470ppb with 20 samples over 100ppb.
The mineralisation increases in grade and width towards the east with line 13 (most eastern completed line) having mineralization over 80m in width greater than 200ppb.
Moreover, the bedrock sampling programme has revealed that the highest-grade soil anomaly does not directly correlate with the highest-grade bedrock anomaly and that the in-situ mineralization increases eastward of the main soil anomaly.
According to Ongwe’s CEO Dave Underwood, the latest results from the Manga target confirm Ongwe Minerals’ expectation that the mineralization continues to the east under thick calcrete cover.
“The surface soil anomaly dissipates towards the east, however by using the well proven bedrock sampling technique we have been able to define a significant expansion of mineralization at the Manga prospect under cover,” he said. “When the Manga surface discovery was first made in late 2024, a series of scout RC holes were drilled across the centre of the anomaly, which intercepted wide, low-grade mineralization.”
He added that it is now clear that these holes were drilled more than 1km west of the start of higher-grade mineralization.
“This is an exciting development, and we’ve decided to extend the bedrock sampling program to keep chasing the mineralization which is hidden under soil and calcrete cover. We will also test blind magnetic targets now that we know there is thick calcrete cover (>10m) in some areas,” said Underwood.
As VP Exploration at Osino Resources between 2016 and 2024, we pioneered and successfully used this exploration technique which ultimately resulted in the large-scale Twin Hills gold discovery.
Just like at Manga, there was low grade gold mineralization at surface which disappeared along strike under thick calcrete cover.
“The larger shoots of higher grade, economic mineralization at Twin Hills were found between 2.5 and 5km along strike using bedrock sampling and detailed magnetics, just like we are doing at Ongwe,” he said. Bedrock sampling at Manga indicates eastward continuation of mineralization under thick calcrete cover with the current defined mineralization stretching over 2km.
Mineralization widens and remains open towards the east, with increasing bedrock assay results underneath thick calcrete cover indicating potential to improve the overall size, quality and economic discovery potential of the Manga prospect. Bedrock sampling program extended to continue to trace the mineralization eastwards under calcrete cover.