Kavango Resources raises P54m for Kalahari exploration
Mbongeni Mguni | Monday November 21, 2022 06:00
The deal represents one of the biggest fundraising rounds for the exploration of the remote Kalahari, a relatively unexplored area of the country, hidden under thick sands but believed to contain large amounts of mineral riches, including base metals and the increasingly sought-after rare earths.
Kavango Resources, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, holds 28 prospecting licences on the Kalahari Copperbelt and the far reaches of the Kalahari region, hunting for copper, nickel, platinum group elements and rare earth elements.
Kavango Resources’ prospecting licences cover nearly 16,000 square kilometres and date back as far as 2012.
Recent investor disclosures, shows that the bulk of the P54 million fundraising was done through placement of shares with institutional and high net worth investors, while funds were also secured through placement with Arigo Capital Limited of Rwanda.
The recently raised funds will primarily be used to carry out proposed exploration work, provide working capital to Kavango and to meet the company’s regulatory and administrative commitments, directors explained.
“Supported by many existing shareholders and new investors, we are now empowered to drive forward a dramatic exploration programme across our portfolio,” Kavango CEO, Ben Turney said. “Our current key focus is on our Kalahari Copper Belt interests, where the drilling programme is underway. “We are now fully funded for our ambitious plans through 2023 and are in an excellent position to achieve our goal of becoming the leading minerals exploration company in Botswana."
Turney added: “We are now extremely well positioned to pursue our ambition of making multiple major metal discoveries in Botswana."
Kavango is one of the more active explorers in the Kalahari Copperbelt and its southern reaches, an area whose terrain and heavy sand overburden have raised the costs of exploration and limited discoveries.
Outside of the Kalahari Copperbelt, the known 1,000-kilometre stretch of mineral riches running south-west to north-east in the country’s western half, the absence of updated geological data in the south and west has meant explorers have overlooked the region in favour of more well-known ore zones, often in the east.
In recent years, however, the Botswana Geoscience Institute has reported a shift westwards by minerals explorers, driven by the global search for base metals such as copper and nickel, as well as rare earth all valuable for their use in consumer electronics and the green transition.