Pambili to commence Golden Mine underground drilling

PAMBILI Natural Resources Corporation, a company specialising in the exploration and development of natural resources in Matabeleland North, has announced the commencement of underground drilling at its Golden Valley Mine (GVM).

The company has contracted Shengela (Private) Limited to carry out the underground drilling programme at GVM. Shengela Private Limited provides specialist surveying and development services.

In an update, the company said an initial 600m of diamond drilling will be completed to identify the extension of the orebody previously mined at GVM, along with possible parallel zones to the north of the existing orebody.

PAMBILI Natural Resources Corporation

Chief executive officer, Mr Jon Harris, said regional geology suggests the Bulawayo greenstone belts exhibit “pinch and swell” structures and Pambili’s drilling programme is geared towards identifying the next swell.

“The gold grades encountered from our sludge drilling holes around the periphery of GVM’s historic development support our belief that, in the absence of geological data, historical mining simply stopped once the mineralised zone was mined out,” he said in a statement.

“Regional geology suggests the Bulawayo greenstone belts exhibit ‘pinch and swell’ structures and Pambili’s drilling programme is geared towards identifying the next ‘swell’. This could have the potential to provide a near-term source of ore to fund operations at Golden Valley,” said Mr Harris.

Chief executive officer, Mr Jon Harris

“This will provide the company with a strong foundation while we look to complete a surface drilling programme at GVM to identify a code-compliant mineral resource.

“We’re looking forward to continuing to advance our understanding of GVM’s gold potential as the drill bit begins turning and will provide results as and when we are able.”

Pambili’s drilling programme is designed to identify a production resource rather than a code-compliant mineral resource estimate, therefore, sampling and testing will only be conducted on any mineralised zones intersected by each hole.

The company has also noted that assays of such intersections will be submitted to an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited commercial metallurgical assay laboratory in Zimbabwe on a hole-by-hole basis to minimise the time taken to get the full assay results.

Pambili expects the assay results from each hole to help guide the direction of subsequent drilling, it added.

The mine, located 15km from Bulawayo, has installed capacity to process 40 tonnes of ore per day.

Pambili NRC is a natural resources exploration and development company currently active in Zimbabwe and in the Canadian province of Alberta.

Government is targeting 40 tonnes of gold this year with total gold output in the second quarter amounting to 7,7 tonnes up from six tonnes in the first quarter.

Gold is the country’s largest single export earner from which the Government targets 40 tonnes this year from 30,1 tonnes in 2023.

By next year, the yellow metal is expected to generate US$4 billion from around US$3 billion.

Mining accounts for more than three-quarters of Zimbabwe’s export earnings with the country boasting more than 60 mineral occurrences, but less than 10 are currently being commercially exploited.-choncile