Kavango Resources, a metals exploration company focused on Southern Africa, is set to build a new gold processing plant at its Hillside project in Matabeleland, southern Zimbabwe. The new facility aims to significantly increase the gold production capacity at the project’s Prospect 4 target, which encompasses 44 gold claims across 503 hectares, within trucking distance of the Nara Project.
Currently, high-grade gold is extracted on a small scale at Prospect 4 and transported 20 km to Kavango’s existing processing facility in the Hillside project area. However, the current plant’s capacity is limited to 40–50 tonnes per day (tpd), which constrains production levels. To accommodate potential growth, Kavango has engaged a South African manufacturer to design a new gold processing plant, which will have a capacity of at least 100 tpd, with the ability to scale up to 200 tpd of mineralized material.
The new plant will be modular in design, providing flexibility for future relocation to other sites within Kavango’s portfolio if a technical economic assessment (TEA) of Prospect 4 indicates the need for a larger facility.
Preliminary exploration at Prospect 4 has been promising, with plans for more in-depth investigations. Kavango intends to start exploratory drilling at Prospect 4 in 2025, including four deep holes ranging from 500 to 600 meters to assess the continuity and depth of the gold-bearing quartz-vein shears. Over 12 sets of these shears have already been identified.
Kavango Resources CEO Ben Turney commented, “Once drilling at Prospect 3 is completed, we will move the two rigs to Prospect 4 to begin the next phase of exploration. Along with assay tests, we will conduct metallurgical testing on core samples from the new holes. The data we gather will guide the TEA for the project.”
Turney further explained, “We plan to use the free cash flow generated from the new processing plant to fund the TEA. If the results are favorable, the final TEA for Prospect 4 could serve as a blueprint for significantly increased gold production at Kavango.”
In parallel, Kavango has also begun a drilling program at Prospect 3 of the Hillside gold project. The program aims to delineate a mineral resource for an open-pit mine and obtain a representative sample for metallurgical testing.
