In response to rising prices, Mount Burgess Mining (ASX:MTB) has quantified the silver and gallium contained in the existing Kihabe-Nxuu resource.
The resource at the project, which is located in Botswana, previously only highlighted the contained zinc and lead metal.
However, of the total 21 million tonnes hosted within the two deposits, Mount Burgess estimates there is 5.4 million ounces of silver within the Kihabe deposit and a further 1.04 million ounces within the Nxuu deposit.
The Nxuu deposit sits 7km east of the Kihabe deposit.
Mount Burgess says the Kihabe deposit has two significant silver domains, southwest and northeast, that returned shallow high-grade intersections in June 2021.
Individual intersections at Kihabe include 7m @ 984 grams per tonne (g/t) silver from 97m, including 1m @ 4,076g/t from 97m.
Further infill and extensional drilling is required, Mount Burgess says.
Chairman Nigel Forrester says the importance of the silver content of the Kihabe-Nxuu Project is supported by its recent significant price increase to 10-year highs.
Silver is trading at just under US$30 ($45) an ounce after hitting a high of US$32.42 in May 2024.
“The company sees this as being positive for the project as the expectation is that silver demand will continue to increase due to the metal’s green technology use in solar panels, batteries and wind turbines,” Forrester says.
The gallium is not yet included in the resource, so Mount Burgess is undertaking metallurgical testwork to determine the recovery potential of the gallium and germanium.
The company has outlined an exploration target of up to 100 million tonnes @ 12g/t gallium, which has more than tripled in price since the start of 2020.
“The importance of the gallium content of the Kihabe-Nxuu project is also supported by its recent significant 272% price increase to US$811.2/kg since January 2020,” Forrester says.
“The increase is primarily due to gallium nitride chips required to replace silicon chips not able to cope with the increase in heat generated from the increase in 5G communication traffic in computers, laptops and smart phones.”
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Mount Burgess Mining
