Khusib Springs Copper-Silver Mine – Namibia

The Khusib Springs Mine was a high-grade mine located in the Otavi Mountain Land near Grootfontein in Northern Namibia (Figure 1). The deposit was discovered early in the 1990s through mapping and drilling and went into production in 1995. The deposit is a steeply plunging pipe-like lens hosted by limestone and is considered to be analogous with the Tsumeb Mine 40km to the northwest. Approximately 300,000t at 10% Cu, 584g/t Ag and 1.8% Pb[1] was mined from the deposit. Khusib Springs has a similar geological setting to Tsumeb and like Tsumeb contains elevated germanium.  The Tsumeb Mine was one of the worlds major copper producers with a historic resource of 27Mt at 4.3% Cu, 10% Pb, 3.5% Zn and 95g/t Ag[2].

A compilation of previous drill data and mining plans at Khusib Springs shows that remnant copper ore exists on the margins of mined stopes. The unmined ore in the upper levels could be mined by open pit. There is also potential for extensions to the defined ore zones along strike and down plunge. Historically there was only limited drilling to locate the ore zone below the stopes mined on Level 6 and a fault offset made targeting difficult. The Company believes the ore zone may  continue at an orientation that was not tested by previous drilling. At the Tsumeb Mine the grade of the pipe-like orebody varied considerably with depth and the orientation of the high-grade shoots changed abruptly similar to the structural setting at Khusib Springs.

Golden Deeps will continue to compile historical data on the Khusib Springs mine with a plan to conduct drilling to confirm the existence of high-grade copper-silver ore on the margins of the old stopes and along strike.

Figure 1: Location plan, Khusib Springs Copper Mine in the Otavi Mountain Land, Northern Namibia

Figure 2: Cross section of Khusib Springs Copper Mine showing copper mineralisation and mine development and stopes

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