Happy Valley Mine (Part 3): ‘Potential to mobilize gold in the Hope Fountain area’

NI 43-101 report notes region’s 2,000-kg production history, lithology ‘amenable to gold mineralization’

CALGARY, Canada (July 20, 2022)—The Hope Fountain structure in southwestern Zimbabwe had already produced about 2,000 kilograms of gold through the mid-1980s.

The National Instrument (NI) 43-101 Technical Report on the Happy Valley Mine, completed earlier this year, indicates there may be more where that came from.

“Happy Valley Mine has the potential to mobilize gold in the Hope Fountain area,” reads the report, completed by independent Zimbabwean geologist Gayle Hanssen. “The location has the potential to be an excellent mining project in the Hope Fountain structural domain.”

Located just 15 kilometers from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, the underexploited Happy Valley Mine—a producing gold mine—first saw activity in 1956 and has produced more than 11 kilograms of gold to date.

On April 28, 2022, Pambili Natural Resources Corporation (TSX-V: PNN) closed a C$515,000 non-brokered private placement (NBPP), which was oversubscribed, to enable Pambili to start earning into the future production of the Happy Valley Mine. The NBPP provides funds for a C$200,000 capital expansion plan to ramp up current production, as well as at least C$100,000 for an initial exploration program.

The Happy Valley Mine lies at the center of the Hope Fountain structural domain, an elliptical area in southwestern Zimbabwe dotted with 87 mines that have produced at various times from 1895 through 1984.

Total production of gold through 1984 has been 1,993 kilograms from 246,186 tonnes of ore, a recovery rate of 8.1 grams per tonne, according to the NI 43-101 report.

“The Hope Fountain is a tight anticlinal fold,” reads the report. “The structural geology in this area plays a critical role in the reef geometry and payability. This is modified by the lithology acting as zones of structural weakness, amenable to gold mineralization.”

Based on recent geophysical surveys carried out in September 2019, the NI 43-101 report recommends a two-stage program of exploration at the Happy Valley Mine—while current gold production continues.