Pambili Natural Resources: London Wall Due Diligence: 8.87 g/t Sample Metallurgical Test Results and Identification of Large-Scale Potential Gold System
thenewswire.com
CALGARY, Canada (May 16, 2025) – TheNewswire - Pambili Natural Resources Corporation ("Pambili" or the "Company") (TSX-V: PNN) is pleased to announce positive results from initial due diligence on the London Wall group of gold mines (“London Wall”), located in the Gwanda district of Matabeleland, Zimbabwe. Pambili announced it had secured a twelve-month option to purchase London Wall on November 20, 2024.
A desktop review of historical data has provided significant evidence of multiple high-grade gold deposits at London Wall never previously evaluated through modern exploration methods. One target, the East Shaft, is ready to be brought into production in the near-term.
Highlights:
- Two primary targets confirmed for near-term high-grade gold production:
- Target 1 - East Shaft
- Historically mined to 3 Level (90m vertical depth).
- In 2022, the East Shaft was equipped with a modern head gear and hoist by the former operator (the “Former Operator”), who developed a plan for its immediate mining (the “Historic Mine Plan”).
- The Historic Mine Plan identified five blocks of ore estimated to contain a non-code compliant 1,500 ounces (“oz”) of gold at 3 grams per ton (“g/t”) and 48,000 oz of silver. These blocks are believed to be ready for mining.
- Pambili plans to inspect and re-equip East Shaft for safe access, enabling a comprehensive geological survey to confirm the potential of the five identified blocks as an in-situ gold resource.
- Further exploration through surface drilling is planned to test down-dip continuity and strike extent.
- Target 2 – West Shaft
- Extends below the regional sill to 7 Level (210m vertical depth).
- Until recently, illegal miners were recovering material down to 3 Level, with the lower levels being protected by flooding below the water table.
- Metallurgical testing on 18 kg of ore recovered from an illegal miner’s stock pile at West Shaft, returned average gold assay results of 8.87 g/t and a carbon in leach (“CIL”) recovery rate of 84.6%.
- Pambili has secured the West Shaft with 24-hour security, and intends to test the target’s depth and strike extent through a surface drilling program.
- A desktop study of the London Wall region has identified a potential large-scale gold system, with up to 3.3km of possible strike, spread across three target shear zones. Pambili is planning a surface drill program to test for gold mineralization and down-dip continuity across these shear zones.
- Pambili notes several mines in the Gwanda Greenstone Belt are extracting ore from 1,000m or more below surface. The nearby Jessie Mine is located on a parallel trend and, up to 1990, had recorded production of 440,000 oz gold (Zimbabwe Geological Survey, Mineral Resource Series No. 23, Gold Deposits of Zimbabwe, by D.S. Bartholomew Ph.D.). Operations at Jessie Mine continue at depth.
- Pambili believes London Wall can provide low-cost entry into a large-scale underground mining operation.
Jon Harris, Chief Executive Officer of Pambili Natural Resources, commented:
“We are highly encouraged by the results of our initial due diligence at London Wall over the last few months. We believe London Wall has significant potential for a large-scale underground mining operation. Despite their size our targets have never been properly explored using modern methods and London Wall has the potential to become a company builder.
The results of a metallurgical test on the ore recovered from West Shaft illustrates London Wall’s high-grade potential. We have now secured the site and are preparing an exploration plan to follow up this lead.
The Historic Mine Plan for the East Shaft is also encouraging. The plan identifies five blocks potentially containing 16,000 t of ore at an average grade of 3 g/t. Although an idealized plan at this stage, it is based on the former operator’s experience of mining at London Wall and presents a superb set of drill targets including a potential 1,500 oz gold and 48,000 oz silver. Our goal at London Wall is to conduct exploration through mining.
The East Shaft requires little rehabilitation to regain full access to the third level. Our plan is to re-equip the shaft and commence the underground sampling of the previously identified blocks, in order to move quickly into production.”
Due Diligence at London Wall
Pambili has completed several due diligence activities at London Wall including the metallurgical testing of a non-representative sample (recovered from illegal artisanal miners at the West Shaft) and a site visit by an Australian mining engineer. The Company also obtained the Historic Mine Plan from the Former Operator.
Pambili now intends to re-equip the East Shaft and commence the necessary sampling and evaluation to confirm the anticipated grades of the five potential blocks the Historic Mine Plan indicates are ready to mine. If results are favourable, the Company expects to be able to bring East Shaft into production in the near-term.
Historic Mine Plan for Development of Gold Mining at East Shaft
Pambili secured the Historic Mine Plan from the Former Operator, who held a tribute over London Wall until 2022. The Historic Mine Plan contained a non-compliant resource estimate (Table 1). While Pambili believes the information to be reasonably accurate, the Company will conduct its own testing for verification. Testing will include surveying and sampling throughout the five potential blocks.
Block ID
| Tonnes
| Grade
| Au (g)
| Au (oz)
| 3/2 West
| 4,050
| 3.00
| 12,150
| 390.63
| 3/2 West
| 5,103
| 3.00
| 15,309
| 492.20
| 2/1 East
| 3,240
| 3.00
| 9,720
| 312.51
| 3/4 West
| 2,025
| 3.00
| 6,075
| 195.32
| 3/4 East
| 1,620
| 3.00
| 4,860
| 156.25
| Total
| 16,038
| 3.00**
| 48,114
| 1,547
|
Table 1 – Non-code compliant resource estimate of the Historic Mine Plan, developed by the Former Operator at London Wall in 2022.
**Mine planning conservative estimate used by Former Operator to justify base mining case
After re-equipping the East Shaft the Company will complete an underground survey to confirm the potential ore resources remain intact, followed by a rapid sampling campaign, including channel sampling of existing development drives to ascertain the grade and lithology of any identifed ore bodies. Additionally, Pambili will conduct a LiDAR scan of the underground workings to compile a 3D interpretation of historic workings for further analysis.
Figure 1 below shows the initial development plan to develop drives and raises to the east of the East Shaft.
Click Image To View Full Size
Figure 1 – Longitudinal section of the London Wall East Shafts, depicting zones for planned mining under the Historic Mine Plan
The western extent of East Shaft also remains a viable option for development, providing an opportunity to mine towards the central shaft and to the West Shaft, the source of the bulk sample. Pambili will provide further updates on this in due course.
Should exploration results confirm the presence of the mineable resources at East Shaft, Pambili intends to install a 50 t/d CIL plant for pilot production.
Metallurgical Test Work on samples taken from West Shaft
Pambili recovered an 18 kg sample from illegal miners at West Shaft. The metallurgical test report on these samples states:
“Gravity recovered gold (“GRG”) is high - 68% gold is recovered by GRG. This means that 50% of the gold will be recovered by gravity in practice. Working on a 8.36 to 8.87 g/t, a minimum of 4 g/t will be recovered in a gravity circuit.
Additionally, 80% of the gold still in gravity tails is recovered in a Carbon In Leach (CIL) circuit - meaning at least 3.5 g/t is recovered in the leach circuit. Bringing total recovery to 7.5 g/t (84.6%).
Head grade gold analyses:
Au 1
| Au 2
| Au 3
| Au average
| g/t
| g/t
| g/t
| g/t
| 9,01
| 8,74
| 8,85
| 8,87
|
Pambili is aware that this sample would have been hand sorted and is therefore of higher grade than the expected run of mine grade, which according to the historical assay plans will be between 4 and 5g/t. The technical team plans to take a more representative sample for test work as soon as underground access has been achieved. Despite this, the results look very promising.”
Next Steps at West Shaft
West Shaft was historically mined to 7-Level (210m vertical depth), with an average recovered grade of 6.5 g/t gold. The grade is consistent with the recent metallurgical test results Pambili received on recovered ores.
Analysis of historic mine plans for West Shaft appear to confirm Level 7 was mined below the regional dolerite sill which is extensive and roughly 30m thick. The sill has limited small-scale mining in the region, but several larger mining operations have successfully developed below this sill and continue to extract ore to depths in excess of 1,000m.
These operations include the Jessie Mine, which is less than 3km away from London Wall’s East Shaft and likely on the same shear system. The Jessie Mine has been operated continuously by the same family for almost 100 years and has recorded production in excess of 440,000 oz at recovered grades of 10.5 g/t. It is currently operating at 38 level (1,140m below surface).
Click Image To View Full Size
Figure 2 – Longitudinal section showing historic mining at the London Wall West Shaft penetrated through the sill. The area beneath the sill (depth to be confirmed) has unmined potential.
Site Visit by Minorex Pty Ltd
Minorex, an Australian underground mining consultancy, visited several gold mines in Matabeleland in October 2024, including a site visit to London Wall. The Minorex report on the visit to London Wall stated:
“…the geology at this site includes a barren sill or dyke intrusive that cuts off the orebody. The dyke is shallowest near the first shaft, and plunges at a low dip angle towards the second and 3rd shafts. The dyke is approximately 20-30m thick, and the orebody continues below it with a slight offset. London Wall was the only site visited that had any face grade and width information recorded on any of the historical plans. The face grades and width information on the plan were encouraging and profitable.”
Pambili intends to engage Minorex for advisory services with respect to future mine development.
Exploration Plan at London Wall to test for large-scale Gold System
Pambili is currently working on a wider exploration plan to test three shear zones running through the London Wall tenement with the objective of confirming that these shear zones carry gold.
London Wall has never been properly explored using modern exploration methods such as geophysical surveys or surface drilling. Given the significant strike extent of the London Wall ore bodies, Pambili believes there is an opportunity to drill along strike of the old mines on the property and discover additional potential and test the down dip continuity of the previously identified ore bodies.
Click Image To View Full Size
Figure 3 – The London Wall group of mines, outlined in blue, with 3.3km of untested strike potential across three target areas. The producing Jessie Mine is shown to the southeast, outside the claim area.
Given the prevalence of deep gold mines along strike to the west and east of London Wall, Pambili believes there is potential for at least one of the targets at London Wall to follow the same model. The high water level means underground resources are protected and any existing underground developments and stopes are unlikely to be extensive. Subject to further exploration, there is potentially a large area of ground to mine in the short term.
Pambili intends to conduct preparatory surface exploration at London Wall in advance of drilling.
Qualified Person
This news release has been reviewed by Gayle Hanssen BSc. (Hons.) Geology, an independent geologist who is a qualified person as defined by Canadian National Instrument 43-101. Ms Hanssen confirms that Pambili needs to verify and confirm the reported historical data before exercising the Option but otherwise approves the technical information contained in this news release based on her knowledge of other gold projects located in the Gwanda greenstone belt.
About Pambili Natural Resources Corporation: Pambili Natural Resources Corporation is a natural resources exploration and development company ( www.pambilinrc.com) currently active in Zimbabwe and in the province of Alberta.
For further information, contact:
Pambili Natural Resources Corporation
Jon Harris (CEO)
T: 403 277 4421
E: jon.harris@pambilinrc.com
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Caution regarding Forward-looking statements. Certain information set forth in this news release may contain Forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by words such as “believes”, “may”, “likely”, “plans”, or similar words. Forward-looking statements included in this news release include statements with respect to work to be done on the Corporation’s gold exploration and development projects in Zimbabwe. These Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Corporation, including, but not limited to the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, currency fluctuations, and dependence upon regulatory approvals. The Corporation does not assume any obligation to update the Forward-looking statements to reflect changes in assumptions or circumstances other than as required by applicable law.
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