Noronex extends Namibia copper hunt into adjacent Botswana

Noronex Limited has been granted two strategic Botswanan prospecting licences on the Namibia-Botswana border, contiguous with and north-east along strike from its Damara copper project in Namibia.

Aeromagnetic data shows direct continuity of prospective linear magnetic signatures striking eastwards across the border from Damara into both of the new licences, parallel with and along the interpreted northern boundary of the Kalahari Basin.

The new licences enclose almost 1500 square kilometres of previously unexplored terrane within the footprint of the globally renowned Kalahari Copper Belt. It is interpreted as including the key prospective D’Kar Formation, which could be developed directly on the basin margin.

The new tenements, held by Noronex’s subsidiary Senyetse Resources, embrace 721.87 square kilometres and 745.40 square kilometres respectively. Noronex will now transfer the licences to a new fully-owned Botswanan subsidiary, Tilodi Metals Botswana P/L.

We are very pleased to be granted two new highly prospective exploration licences in Botswana that we applied for in January this year. With the potential of the Kalahari Copper Belt strongly endorsed this week by the recently announced BHP earn-in deal with Cobre Ltd, we intend to continue our search on the basin margin for the next major copper discovery in the district – as with our recent drilling at the Damara project in Namibia.

One of the linear magnetic signatures in the Damara ground encloses and extends north-east into the new ground from Noronex’s current Otjiuapehuri prospect which is less than 3km west of the border.

Noronex has drilled seven holes at Otjiuapehuri this year. The company is awaiting sample results from laboratory testing.

While the magnetics and gravity data within the new licences shows indisputable continuity of significant structural trends across the international border, magnetic trends exhibit increasing distortion and complexity towards the north-east that contrast sharply with their apparent structural regularity at Otjiuapehuri.

The geology of the area and basement features are poorly understood as the Botswana ground has never been drilled.

Noronex plans to undertake an orientation geochemical sampling program for the new ground after acquiring environmental approval for the work.

Extrapolating from the surrounding ground, the area is expected to be covered by between 10 metres and 80m of Kalahari sands.

Part of the proposed sampling area is directly north of Cobre Limited’s Thul prospect in Cobre’s Kitlanya West copper project in Botswana, which is contiguous on its northern boundary with Noronex’s new prospecting licences.

Cobre recently announced the execution of an earn-in agreement with a subsidiary of the BHP Group, where BHP can earn a 75 per cent interest in the Kitlanya projects by spending up to US$25 million (A$39.75m) within eight years, focussed on the Kalahari Copper Belt’s northern basin margin.

The agreement follows Cobre’s participation in the 2024 BHP Xplor program, which funded a seismic survey at Kitlanya West.

Under the agreement, BHP will provide a minimum of US$5m (A$7.95m) within two years, with a planned budget of US$7m (A$11.13m) for exploration of the Kitlanya projects.

The initial US$5m expenditure is set to begin in April, with deep diamond drilling at Kitlanya West and further seismic surveys to test areas of interest identified in last year’s seismic program.

International interest in the Kalahari Copper Belt is steadily increasing and despite its proven prospectivity, the geology of its vast area requires considerable work and time to decode.

Noronex’s work is steadily achieving this understanding, and it will be interesting to see what the upcoming geochemistry in its new ground reveals and what next steps the results might prompt.

The company is also looking to kick off more drilling at its Namibian Fiesta target area in the southwest extremity of its Namibian Humpback project, where it remains optimistic about what the next phase of deeper diamond drilling can deliver.

Its latest hit from Fiesta reported in January ran 16m at 1 per cent copper and 33 grams per tonne (g/t) silver from 158m, including 7m going 1.5 per cent copper and 54g/t silver from 161m.

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