A number of mining projects are cur- rently under way in Zimbabwe, and are expected to attract foreign invest- ment into the country, a press release from networking forum Africa Exchange reports.

Gold Claims
Gold Claims, 50 km west of Harare, is in the exploration stage and is a viable near-surface gold prospect, with 75 gold claims, which stretch as an irregular shaped block, covering 739 ha.

Shear zone-related quartz veins are the principal host rock to the high-grade gold mineralisation.

A South African mining company is busy exploring and establishing a gold mine on the adjacent properties. Consulting engineer firm Geophysics Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), of Botswana, did a comprehensive magnetic and induced polarisation survey on the property in September 2010 to map out structures. Results indicate that gold-hosting structures (shear zones and subordinate shear veins) are predominantly north-west to west-north-west trending and can be traced from known or existing adjacent mines onto the property.

Prospect near Mount Darwin
Another prospect for a new gold mine is near Mount Darwin, 170 km north of Harare. The project is near the production stage on a proven resource of about 100 000 oz of oxide heap-leachable gold ore. Further, advanced exploration and a feasibility study have been undertaken on a gold sulphide resource and 12 km strike of gold anomalous zones to increase the resource by a further one-million ounces.

This gold prospect is a result of exploration work undertaken by a significant gold mining company during the late 1980s under an exclusive prospecting order. The exploration work revealed a number of anomalies over a strike length of more than 12 km. A limited strike extent of 1.2 km was evaluated through percussion drilling to test the oxide gold potential, whereas the remaining area still requires further exploration.

In this area, after detailed geochemical soil sampling, trenching and percussion drilling had been done, a non-South African Mineral Resource Committee- or a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant indicated resource of over two-million tons of oxide resource was revealed over a 350 m strike length and 60 m width. The sulphide gold potential of this project was not evaluated, although reports on the old mines suggest improved grades of up to 6 g/t at average depths of 70 m to 90 m below the surface.

Several untested soil geochemical anomalies, over a 12 km strike length, have poten- tial to generate over one-million ounces of gold.

Copper near Mhangura
Africa Exchange also reports that a copper prospect near Mhangura may be suitable for development. It covers 900 ha in the Magondi mobile belt, which is the sequence that hosts Zimbabwe’s biggest copper deposits, Mhangura and Alaska. Access to this property as well as to power and water infrastructure is excellent.

A known copper occurrence has been discovered on this property and subsequent exploration work was curtailed by low copper prices and the deterioration of the economic situation in the country, dating back to the liberation war.

Gold near Shamva and Chinhoyi
Further, another gold opportunity exists in Shamva and Chinhoyi. Both projects are at the small-scale mining stage, with Shamva having produced 350 kg gold from 20 000 t of ore and Chinhoyi, with average grades of about 15 g/t, set on 40 ha of gold claims.

Elmo Nickel Prospect near Mhangura
There is an excellent exploration opportunity, potentially hosting a world-class nickel/copper-platinum-group-elements deposit, at the Elmo nickel prospect, near Mhangura, and, so far, $200 000 has been spent on exploration work.

The Elmo nickel claims cover part of the Cheuka-Doma mafic-ultramafic complex. Exploration for such deposits have previously been ignored in Zimbabwe in favour of komatiite-hosted nickel deposits, or were not effectively explored using modern techniques.

When evaluated against giant nickel- resource characteristics, the area of interest has the best geological positioning in Zimbabwe and is ranked high in terms of discovery potential.