Southern Africa-focused metals exploration company Kavango Resources has signed a contract for 30 km of Induced Polarisation (IP) survey lines over targeted areas within the company’s Karakubis copper project group of licences, in Botswana, with the goal of identifying sulphide bodies, which will be ranked as targets for future drilling.

Karakubis is located next to the Namibian border, adjacent to large landholdings held by mining company Sandfire Resources to the north and metals and mining company Rio Tinto to the west in Namibia.

The project area is also immediately along strike of the Ghanzi West project, where uranium and copper explorer ENRG Elements has identified similar geological signatures to Sandfire Resources' Motheo copper mine.

Following a recent review of the company's Kalahari Copper Belt (KCB) project by one of the region's most experienced exploration geologists David Catterall, Kavango recognised the potential for nearer surface D'Kar Formation rocks within the Karakubis block. The contact point of the lower D'Kar and Ngwako Pan Formations is one of the KCB's primary controlling structures for copper/silver mineralisation.

Kavango has already completed mapping, surveying and soil sampling over these licences, identifying a large target area for further exploration.

Subsequent interpretation of controlled source audio magnetotelluric (CSAMT) survey data from the Karakubis project area suggests the potential presence of D'Kar/Ngwako Pan Formation contact at moderate depths, which agrees with the geological interpretation.

Further to this, inversion sections from the airborne electromagnetic (AEM) surveys completed by the company in the fourth quarter of last year over Karakubis indicate the presence of tightly folded rocks forming a possible domal structure.

Kavango is working on the theory that such structures may have brought the D'Kar/Ngwako Pan contact horizon closer to surface. Such structures are known to host mineralisation in shears and dilational trap sites in the hinge zone. 

Similar structures are understood, from public domain information, to be present on ENRG Elements' Ghanzi West Project immediately to the east of Karakubis. ENRG recently identified three domal features at Ghanzi West, similar to those discovered along strike by Sandfire Resources at its Motheo copper mine.

ENRG also identified the potential for near-surface D'Kar/Ngwako Pan horizon contact-associated mineralisation, which is interpreted by Kavango's team to extend into the Karakubis prospecting licences.

IP survey data and modelling could now enable Kavango to identify similar potential structural traps and possible sulphide bodies within Karakubis, should such bodies exist within the range of investigation.

This work is planned to be initially completed using gradient array IP on 500 m spaced lines, followed up with IP sections for drill planning.

Line cutting has commenced for the IP survey, with mobilisation of the IP equipment under way. Data will be reviewed and modelled after collection, with results expected to support future drill targeting.

Should the IP survey result in the identification of priority drill targets, Kavango intends to adopt a two-phase approach to drilling.

Phase 1 will involve testing target areas with shallow reverse circulation drilling to test subsurface soil geochemistry. This approach will enable Kavango to refine its targets for deeper Phase 2 diamond drilling.

The company is currently working on the basis of commencing drilling in the first quarter of next year, and will announce results from this programme as they are generated.

"Kavango is focussing its efforts in the KCB on the Karakubis project. We believe the Karakubis licences are particularly prospective owing to the known mineral potential in the surrounding geology.

“Karakubis sits on the same regional structural trends that have yielded a number of major discoveries. So far, our AEM, CSAMT surveys and surface soil geochemistry have given us encouraging results,” comments Kavango CEO Ben Turney.

“The aim of the 30 km of IP survey lines will be to identify and rank possible sulphide bodies as future drill targets. If present, these bodies could represent an opportunity for the near-term detection of a metal-bearing alteration system."