London-listed Kavango Resources has published a new independent technical review on the exploration potential of the company’s Kalahari Suture Zone (KSZ) project, in Botswana.

Kavango is searching for “Norilsk-style” deposits in the KSZ, which the technical review has confirmed the presence of.

The review, completed by Dr David Holwell using a mineral systems approach, confirms the presence of ten key geological features, which are also present in world-class magmatic sulphide copper, nickel and platinum group metal (PGM) deposits at Norilsk, in Siberia; Voisey’s Bay, Thomson Nickel Belt and Raglan, in Canada; and Jinchuan, in China.

Kavango says the independent technical review confirms the company’s assessment of the KSZ project’s significant economic potential.

The company plans on doing follow-up testwork, including desktop and drill core analysis, as well as field exploration, as soon as travel restrictions are lifted in Botswana.

Kavango plans to release a KSZ work programme plan in coming weeks.

The review has recommended a number of exploration steps for Kavango to take in establishing whether additional geological features are present in the KSZ.

Holwell further suggests that Kavango collaborate with the University of Leicester, in the UK, to do research on the project, including petrology, mineralogy, electron microprobe work, whole rock geochemistry and thin section work on the exploration data gathered by Kavango so far.

CEO Michael Foster says the review of the KSZ project by Holwell and the work carried out to date by the company represent confirmation that Kavango is on track to make a mineral discovery in the near future. 

“The huge value of deposits such as the copper/nickel/PGM-rich ores in the Norilsk-Talnakh camp – of the order of hundreds of billions of dollars within a single ore shoot – provides a powerful incentive to develop an understanding of the geology of the KSZ and identify effective detection techniques,” he highlights.