27
08.13
exploration
Tsodilo’s core shed – where 36,7 km of core is stored – is located
in a leased hangar at Maun’s airport.
Tsodilo believes that its licence areas in Botswana are located within the south-western
extension of the Central African Copperbelt of Zambia and the DRC.
Copperbelt’ by companies such as Australia’s Discov-
ery Metals (which owns Boseto) and US-based Cupric
Canyon Capital (which has an advanced project in
the area).
Comments de Wit: “Our rocks are much younger
than those further south – 730 million years as op-
posed to 1,1 billion – and the style of mineralisation
is quite different. The so-called Kalahari Copperbelt
bears no real resemblance – geologically speaking – to
the true Copperbelt. Our properties, by contrast, host
an actual extension of the Copperbelt – the stratig-
raphy and structure are so similar that we’re talking
about one and the same system.”
The reason that iron ore has been excluded from
the First Quantum agreement is that iron ore has been
discovered on Tsodilo’s tenements in the Shakawe
area. “The investment by FQM will allow us to now
accelerate our exploration on what we call the Xau-
dum BIF magnetite project,” says Bruchs. “This de-
posit – which is similar to the Rapitan iron-formation
of Canada – is the first significant iron ore find in Bo-
tswana. The project is at a very early stage and we’re
a long way from having even an inferred resource but
we believe Xaudum could shape up into something
really big – perhaps at least a billion tonnes of iron
ore given that the magnetic anomaly we’re targeting
is about 50 km in length.
“We have drilled over 20 holes into the deposit and
the results look good, with maximum values for iron
of up to 57 %. Moreover, Davis Tube Recovery results
indicate a recovery of between 71 % and 79 % by
magnetic separation with most of the iron reporting
in the magnetic fraction.”
Proving up a decent-sized deposit at Xaudum
looks eminently ‘do-able’ but the problem then, of
course, will be logistics. Botswana’s current rail sys-
tem is inadequate to handle bulk commodities such
as coal and iron ore, with the problem being com-
pounded in the case of Xaudum by the fact that it is
several hundred kilometres from the nearest Botswa-
nan rail line. The railhead at Tsumeb in neighbouring
Namibia could conceivably be used, although this
would require the construction of a 400 km rail spur
to Xaudum.
Bruchs points out that a mine at Xaudum – assum-
ing a viable resource is defined – is, at the very least,
several years away and that by that time progress may
well have been made in upgrading Botswana’s rail
links to South Africa and Mozambique. He also notes
that there is a strong possibility of an entirely new
rail route through to Walvis Bay or Luderitz (or both)
in Namibia – the much-discussed Trans-Kalahari
railway – being constructed. While current thinking
is that this would run through to Namibia from Ga-
borone, there is no inherent reason why it could not
incorporate links to the Okavango
Delta area.
There is also, of course, the op-
tion of utilising the iron ore on site
and Tsodilo is already tentatively
looking at the feasibility of pro-
ducing briquetted metallic iron ore
using Finesmelt technology, an ap-
proach which would ease – though
not eliminate – the logistics issues.
Whatever the obstacles to devel-
oping the Xaudum deposit, Tsodilo
is confident that they can be over-
come and it has signalled its serious
intentions by appointing Dr Alistair
Jeffcoate as Project Manager/Chief
Geologist to lead its metals explora-
tion and resource development pro-
grammes. Previously (for his entire
career, in fact) with Rio Tinto, his
most recent position was as Senior
Geologist on the Simandou iron ore
project in Guinea, West Africa. His
duties included planning, co-ordi-
nating and implementing the drill-
ing activities on site for a fleet of up
to 11 RC and diamond drilling rigs.
Between assignments at Simandou
