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INDABA PREVIEW
Nxuu beginning for Kihabe
It has been a long time coming, but
Mount Burgess Mining NL looks set to
finally unveil a feasibility study on its Ki-
habe zinc-lead-silver project in Botswana
later in 2018.
Pending successful drilling results
and access to a suitable power solution,
Mount Burgess will soon formally push
the button on devising project econom-
ics over the flagship Nxuu deposit, some
five years after the junior explorer was
stripped of its prospecting licence for fail- ject,” Forrester said.
ing to complete a feasibility study on the
project within a specified period.
Following an exhaustive legal battle,
Mount Burgess was issued a new pros-
pecting licence in early 2016, but only
after chief executive Nigel Forrester ap-
pealed directly to Botswana President
Ian Khama.
One of the company’s founding share-
holders, Forrester has tipped a large
amount of his own money into keep-
ing Mount Burgess afloat over the past
five years and now at long last he can
express his confidence in being able to
take the project through to development.
“If we can get power at a reasonable
cost, this project will work; it’s as simple
as that,” Forrester told Paydirt.
“We have some very, very supportive
shareholders who have been with us
for a very long time, even through that
period when we basically didn’t have a
project, but now we’ve got to get this up
and going to give everybody a chance of
getting their money back.
“It’s not going to be easy from here,
despite the fact we are involved in a zinc
project, but we’re confident we can go
down the most low-risk avenue to get this
thing up and running.”
Reliable long-term power supply to
the project site was the sticking point for
Mount Burgess being unable to complete
a feasibility study initially. The company
claimed it had previously been assured
by government officials that grid power
would be made available from 2012.
Mount Burgess welcomed news in
November that three international con-
tractors had been appointed to construct
the first phase of Botswana’s North
West Transmission Grid. Construction
is scheduled to begin in January and is
earmarked for completion by December
2019.
Kihabe could potentially tap into the
Toteng/Shakawe transmission line which
runs within 100km of the project to the
west. However, Mount Burgess still in-
PAGE 88 DECEMBER 2017 - JANUARY 2018 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT
Mount Burgess is set to announce a resource upgrade for the Nxuu deposit at the
Kihabe zinc-lead-silver project in Botswana in early 2018
tends to investigate alternative power
solutions, including gas, solar or hybrid-
type options.
“The fact we have taken the decision to
look for alternative power solutions basi-
cally confirms we are not convinced that
we should be sitting and waiting for grid
power to be the main option for the pro-
While Forrester said his company’s
dealings with the Botswana Government
since the end of the licence stand-off had
been positive, he acknowledged inves-
tors were still wary of the messy dispute
rearing its ugly head.
Mount Burgess raised just shy of
$250,000 via a placement in October,
with similar small cash grabs the only
way to top up the bank balance in recent
times. However, Forrester is hopeful the
company will be able to tap the market
Nigel Forrester get a high-grade portion as supplemen-
for much larger sums in the near future.
As it stands, Mount Burgess has
enough cash in the bank to fund the
next batch of work programmes, includ-
ing diamond drilling to upgrade the cur-
rent Nxuu resource to JORC-compliant
standards.
“We know the boundaries of the re-
source, it’s just a matter of determining
exactly what the final grade is going to be
from all sides,” Forrester said.
“It will probably take some more drilling
early next year and once that’s done we
should be able to report that in a meas-
ured and indicated resource category.
Then subject to power being available,
we can finally proceed to completing a
feasibility study.”
Additional holes at the Kihabe deposit
are also likely to be part of the next phase
of drilling, with the company keen to tar-
tal feed to the Nxuu resource.
Potential silver and germanium credits
will also be included in the revised re-
source estimate.
Mount Burgess has another five years
remaining on its current prospecting li-
cence, with Forrester eager to look be-
yond the existing resource envelope.
“Before we lost our initial licence, we
had generated some seven other anom-
alies which were particularly interesting,”
Forrester said.
“Because this is a sedex system,
where you find one of these it’s likely that
you will find several others. We’re confi-
dent, we just need to do the exploration.”
– Michael Washbourne