Golden Deeps Produces High-grade Battery Metal Cncentrates In Abenab Project Test Work

By:Staff writer
Golden Deeps Ltd, an emerging explorer-developer focused on the world-class Otavi Mountain Land copper district of Namibia, has produced high-grade battery metal concentrates in metallurgical test work on samples from the Abenab vanadium-lead-zinc project in Namibia.
The company announced the results which represent a critical step towards producing high-value vanadium with zinc, lead and copper products for renewable energy storage and EV batteries yesterday.
Abenab is a settlement in the Otjozondjupa region, situated 32 kilometres north of Grootfontein. It was founded in 1921 as a mining settlement for a nearby lead, vanadium and zinc mine which was closed down in 1958.
The emerging Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listed explorer-developer achieved peak concentrate grades of 15.6% vanadium, 11.2% zinc, 38.1% lead and 0.8% copper from bulk samples.
These grades represent an 18-fold upgrade from drill core composite samples, well above the company’s target of a 15-fold increase in quality.
The numbers are comparable to historical vanadium concentrate grades from Abenab, which are said to be some of the highest grades in the world.
“The outstanding vanadium plus zinc, lead and copper concentrate grades produced from test work on the Abenab deposit represent a major breakthrough for the company,” Golden Deeps CEO Jon Dugdale said.
“The test work results open the door to replicating the process for the Nosib discovery and then completing downstream hydrometallurgical test work to produce high-value battery metals products for the rapidly growing renewable energy battery storage industries globally.
“The results will also feed directly into our integrated mine development and processing study – a key stepping-stone towards realising our goal of developing production from the company’s near-surface, high-grade, vanadium with copper, lead, zinc and silver deposits in the Otavi Mountain Land of northern Namibia.”
Golden Deeps is targeting the rapidly emerging vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) industry, a type of structural grid battery designed to support renewable energy sources and off-grid power systems.
The company is now moving to metallurgic testing on bulk samples from a high-grade copper-vanadium-lead discovery (Nosib) nearby, as well as producing a maiden resource estimate for the target.
For Abenab, GED is also advancing optimisation work on an updated resource model for the deposit, which, added to the maiden resource for Nosib, will likely provide an overall resource upgrade for the company’s Otavi Mountain Land projects in northern Namibia.
Finally, Golden Deeps says it is working to develop a flow sheet based on metallurgical work that will be applied to the new resource models, which it will use to develop an integrated mining and two-stage development and production plan for the Abenab and Nosib deposits.
The Abenab landholding stands at 102.51 km2 with further areas under application. Golden Deeps has two Exclusive Prospecting Licences (EPLs) currently undergoing a statutory renewal process (EPL5496 and 3543) and three EPL (EPL5232, 5233 and 5234). Following renewal, the area of EPL5496 and 3543 will be 53.28Km2.
On its tenements, Golden Deeps holds two of the five historically important mines of the Otavi Mountain Land – Abenab and Abenab West (formerly known as Christiana). Both mines have only been tested over short strike lengths, with significant exploration upside available to the Company.
There are three recognised base metal trends with extensive strike lengths located within the tenement package, namely the Abenab, Khusib, and Pavian Trends.
The Abenab Mine operated as an open pit and underground mine from 1921 to 1947 by South West Africa Company primarily for the lead-zinc. It is possibly the largest known and highest-grade deposit of vanadate ore in the world.
Initial production was 30 to 80 tonnes of high-grade vanadium ore, recovered by blasting and hand-sorting. By 1923, the mine had been developed and was operating at a production rate of 1,000 to 2,000 tonnes per annum.
The pipe was mined to a depth of about 215m until reduced grades and the flow of underground water rendered further mining uneconomic.
Following the mine closure, exploration was conducted by companies including Tsumeb Corporation, Anglo American, Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Avonlea Minerals. Work comprised several phases of RC and diamond drilling, trenching and geological mapping. In 2011-2012, Avonlea drilled nine diamond holes for 2,597m over two campaigns.