Noronex ups stake in flagship Namibian copper project

Noronex Ltd has finalised a deal to up its stake in the company’s flagship Witvlei copper project in the prospective Kalahri Copper Belt in Namibia and will now hold 76 per cent of the project. A significant resource totalling more than 100,000 tonnes of contained copper has already been eked out at Witvlei, with plenty of exploration upside potential still on the table.

Management believes the concluded transaction will provide a more streamlined ownership structure for the project, improving the prospects for its development and helping to attract investors or joint venture partners.

Witveli is formally owned by Aloe Investments Two Hundred Thirty Seven (Aloe 237) an entity which is 70 per cent owned by Larchmont. However, Larchmont itself is 80 per cent owned by Noronex.

The complex deal has seen Noronex lift its holdings in Aloe 237 from 70 per cent to 95 per cent after acquiring a 25 per cent stake from its original JV partner in Namibia, Thunder Gold.

The outcome of the deal is that Noronex has now grown its ownership of Witveli from 56 per cent to 76 per cent.

The streamlined ownership structure for potential incoming investors or joint venture partners makes our significant Kalahari Copper Belt Holding in Namibia more attractive and should result in a simplified shareholding, reporting and operational structure for the exploration and development of the assets moving forward.

Witveli lies on the western edges of the company’s 8,000 square kilometre landholdings in the under-explored Kalahri Copper Belt. It already hosts a respectable 8.8 million tonne resource grading 1.28 per cent copper. Exploration drilling by Noronex has returned some significant hits including a 27m intercept going at 1.6 per cent copper at the Daheim prospect.

The company’s portfolio of exploration ground in Namibia now spans 300 kilometres of the same geological structure known to host all the major copper deposits located along the Kalahari Copper Belt.

The region has been a hive of activity in recent years including the 2016 discovery of the Matheo copper deposit across the border in Botswana. ASX-listed miner, Sandfire Resources churns out about 30,000 tonnes of copper each year from Motheo and plans to boost this number in the future to 55,000 tonnes per annum.

Elsewhere, MMG Limited acquired the Zone 5 copper mine in Botswana late last year for an outlay of nearly US$2 billion. A substantial resource of 188 million tonnes going 2.1 per cent copper has been defined at that project.

Noronex’s journey along the Kalahri Copper Belt is still in its early stages, however with such a well endowed mineral belt, any sniff of something that look serious will no doubt set the bulls running.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au