Kavango’s Ditau project covers 759.30 km² in South Botswana, where geophysical analysis has identified 12 geophysical structures.

Of these, nine have clear indications of being ring structures with the potential to host carbonatite and other intrusive rocks. Importantly, carbonatites are the principal source of rare earth elements, which are used in the manufacturing of electric vehicles, globally and can also host a variety of base metals.

How is Kavango exposed to the Ditau project?

The Ditau project is held within our 100%-owned Kanye Resources operating subsidiary. We are also the project’s operator.

What work has Kavango completed at the Ditau project so far?

Carbonatites often occur in swarms or clusters oriented along favourable and clearly defined geological trends. The 12 Ditau geophysical structures occur along a southwest-northeast regional corridor, along the south-eastern edge trend that hosts the Mabuasehube and Kokong kimberlite groups.

Desktop analysis of regional data by our geologists suggests this trend is parallel to other corridors that host kimberlite groups in Botswana and northwest Angola. In the latter, these trends are known to host both kimberlite and carbonatite intrusives.

In addition to the known presence of kimberlites within the Ditau trend, and supporting the possible presence of carbonatites, are an as yet small cluster of carbonatite intrusives in the vicinity of our project. These were drilled by Falconbridge Exploration in the late 1970s and early 1980s to the immediate north and 30km along strike to the northeast of Ditau.

To investigate this potential further, we launched into a drilling programme in March 2022, with four holes successfully testing three of our highest priority targets:

• i10, a discrete circular anomaly of 2.2km diameter
• i8, a slightly larger ring like target of about 4km diameter, and
• i1, which may represent a possible large 7km x 18.5km magmatic intrusive complex, within which are circular structures indicative of potential carbonatite intrusives

Encouragingly, petrology results of core samples taken from the programme, including exploration hole DITDD004 drilled into i10, confirmed the presence of an Iron Oxide Copper Gold (“IOCG”) system at Ditau. We believe this is the first confirmation of IOCG-style mineralisation in Botswana, and the results suggest there is considerable exploration upside at Ditau, both for higher grade IOCG discovery and for carbonatites that may contain REEs.