Ondundu Gold Project Background
The Ondundu Project has a long history of mining and exploration, dating back to the first Europeans to note gold in the area in 1917. Between 1922 and 1964, it was reported that a significant amount of gold was recovered by small scale miners on various mining claims in what is now known as the Ondundu Main Zone (OMZ). Gold was recovered from alluvial, eluvial and shallow oxidised gold bearing rocks. The project has been extensively drilled by various operators, most recently by B2Gold Corp. who completed extensive exploration and drilled 119 diamond drillholes (24,490m) and 3 RC holes (564m) on the OMZ and Margarethental North areas during the period 2015 until 2021. On 6 January 2022, Osino Resources Corp. announced the acquisition of the Ondundu Gold Project from B2Gold Corp.. Osino completed the acquisition of Ondundu from B2Gold on July 21, 2022.
Ondundu is 100% owned by Osino and is located approximately 130km northwest of Osino’s flagship Twin Hills Project in Namibia. Osino completed metallurgical testwork which indicates that after milling to 80% passing 75 micron, gold recovery in the range of 76-79% to gravity concentrate (containing less than 5% of the solid feed to the circuit) could be achieved which suggests that gravity concentration on site, with subsequent transport to and further processing at Twin Hills could be a feasible process route for Ondundu material.
Ondundu Gold Project Overview
Ondundu is a sedimentary hosted, structurally controlled orogenic gold deposit located 130km to the north-west of Osino’s Twin Hills gold project, in an area of known gold deposits hosted within the inland arm of the Pan African Neoproterozoic Damara Belt. The Project lies in the Northern Zone of the Damara Belt, lying to the north of the prominent regional scale Autseib/Otjohorongo Fault. The Project area is underlain entirely by meta-sedimentary rocks of the Kuiseb Formation of the upper Swakop Group, comprising schistose quartz feldspar mica metagreywacke and meta-pelite rocks, which are often calcareous.
The mineralization at Ondundu shows many similarities to turbidite hosted orogenic gold systems known elsewhere (e.g. Lachlan Orogen – Victorian gold district of Victoria, Australia, the Pine Creek Orogen of the Northern Territory, Northern Australia and the Meguma district of Nova Scotia, Canada). The main area of gold mineralization stretches about 1.9km from Margarethental in the north to Razorback in the south (the Ondundu Main Zone or OMZ) and occurs on the steep west facing limb of a parasitic syncline-anticline pair (previously termed the “Common Limb”) on the eastern limb of the south-eastern part of the Ondundu anticline.
The bulk of the gold at Ondundu is free gold associated with bedding-parallel quartz‐Fe‐carbonate-pyrite veins, commonly with related sericite alteration. These veins occur as extensional and shear veins along the west‐southwest dipping common limb and form as single or in sets of parallel veins which occur in zones up to 1m wide in outcrop.
Mineral Resource Statement
As initially announced in its news release dated October 27, 2022, the maiden MRE for Osino’s Ondundu Gold Project comprises 26 million tonnes (Mt) at an average grade of 1.13g/t Au for a total of 0.9 million ounces (Moz) of gold in the Inferred mineral resource category (0.5 g/t cut-off).
Notes:
- Figures are rounded to the appropriate level of precision for the reporting of Mineral Resource estimate.
- The Mineral Resource estimate is stated as in situ dry tonnes; figures are reported in metric tonnes.
- The Mineral Resource estimate are classified under the guidelines of the CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves and adopted by the CIM Council, and procedures for classifying the reported Mineral Resources were undertaken in accordance with NI 43-101.
- The Mineral Resource estimate is reported within a conceptual pit shell determined using a gold price of US$1,800/oz and conceptual parameters and costs to support assumptions relating to reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction.
- Historical underground mining volumes have not been depleted from the Mineral Resource estimate due to the lack of surveyed volumes, however these are considered negligible, and this uncertainty is reflected in the Inferred Mineral Resource classification.
- Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.