Kunene Resources Namibia

Overview

Kunene Resources Namibia is one of Gecko’s exploration companies focused on advancing mineral projects in the Kunene Region of northern Namibia. The company has been successful in the exploration and development of various mineral resources, including manganese, cobalt, copper, and rare earth elements.

The main ore mineral is bastnaesite, with monazite occurring locally as a second rare earth mineral. Its rare earths mineralization (locally named “pink ore”) is a greenfields discovery by our group and is exceptionally high-grade with 18 to 22% Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO) in the mineralized dykes.

The prospective area of 10 km by 10 km underwent geological mapping and geophysical surveys discovering about 1000 mineralized dykes. To date, drilling of only 4 prospects with more than 600 boreholes confirmed the depth extension of the mineral resources. The JORC and internal resource estimates for the limited area covered by drilling already amounts to 30,000 t TREO contained. The mine model of Pit A and Pit B show stripping ratios of 7:1 and 10:1.

The area has an enormous resource upside for orebodies at depth. The Mining Academy of Freiberg, Germany, completed a study on underground mining models for Ondoto confirming economic viability of underground mining. This potential was further explored by a helicopter EM survey by SkyTEM Denmark resulting in 28 additional drill targets to be tested in future.

Gecko advanced well with processing tests on pilot-scale level. The run-of-mine material will be sorted optically and by a TOMRA XRT sorter to discard waste particles after which the product will undergo a hydrometallurgical REE extraction process which was developed and optimized by Dorfner-Anzaplan, Germany. The privately held project is between PFS and DFS level with large parts of the mine, road, water supply and upfront processing infrastructure already established. Currently, optimization hydrometallurgical test work is conducted at the company’s facilities.