TRIGON Mining Namibia has been awarded a new exclusive prospecting licence to explore for base and rare metals, industrial minerals and precious metals in the country.
The company which is 80% owned by Canadia-based Trigon Metals Inc., was awarded the three-year exclusive prospecting licence (EPL) 7525 by the mines ministry effective from 17 January 2020.
The publicly traded Canadian exploration and development company owns Kombat mine and holds five mining licences at the Otavi Mountain lands, an area known for its high-grade copper deposits. Trigon’s core business is on copper operations in Namibia, one of the world’s most prospective copper regions.
The EPL is subject to the terms and conditions of the Minerals (Mining and Prospecting) Act No. 33 of 1992.
EPL 7525 covers an area of 1,1 million hectares, situated to the west of Trigon Namibia’s Kombat project and south of the company’s Gross Otavi project.
Trigon’s chief executive officer, Jed Richardson, said the company is extremely pleased to have been awarded the licence as it supports their strategy of bringing the Kombat mine back into production and realising the upside potential both within their existing mining licence areas and the surrounding region.
He said: “The new EPL presents exciting exploration opportunities for the project over the upcoming months, while we continue to drive our production restart.”
The Kombat project is made up three of the company’s five active mining licences. It is located on the northern limb of the Otavi Valley Syncline, localised immediately below the contact between dolostones of the Hüttenberg Formation and phyllites of the Kombat formation of the Mulden Group.
The company believes the area licensed under EPL 7525 holds significant upside potential for the Kombat project providing access to the area to the west of the Asis Far West shaft, where the geological model indicates there is potential for a westward extension of the Asis West mineralised zone.
According to the mines ministry’s website, the three-year EPL allows for systematic prospecting in areas of up to 1 000 km.
“It gives exclusive exploration rights to the land and may be extended twice for two-year periods if demonstrable progress is shown. Renewals beyond seven years require special approval from the minister,” the ministry said.
