Namibia Critical Metals owns a 95% interest in the Lofdal project with the remaining 5% held for the benefit of historically disadvantaged Namibians.
The Lofdal Project is fully permitted with a 25-year Mining License and is under a Joint Venture Agreement with Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC).
As of February 2, 2024, JOGMEC has completed Term 2 and earned a 40% interest by reaching the $10 million expenditure requirement. JOGMEC has approved an additional $2,375,000 budget for Term 3 through to March 31, 2024, totaling C$12,375,000.
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Summary:
The Lofdal property is underlain by Paleoproterozoic metamorphic rocks of the Huab Metamorphic Complex, which outcrop as an inlier of the Congo Craton surrounded by stratified rocks of the Damaran Orogen.
Rare earth element mineralization in the Lofdal Carbonatite Complex is closely associated with the carbonatite dykes and related hydrothermal alteration. These occur within an area of more than 200 km2 .
Of particular significance is the frequent enrichment of heavy rare earths in the dykes and in structurally controlled hydrothermal alteration zones, which trend predominantly in NE - SW and NNE - SSW directions.
The REE mineralization in the Lofdal Carbonatite Complex is variable and includes both LREE and HREE enriched varieties that appear to have been introduced in separate mineralizing events.
Mineralization in Areas 4 and 2B is structurally controlled and hydrothermal in origin. The host structures are first- and perhaps second-order basement structures that were apparently reactivated more than once during the mineralizing event. Repeated movement promoted the introduction of several generations of hydrothermal fluids, which resulted in a complex series of overprinting alteration events. The mineralization is dominantly present in xenotime and is interpreted to be related to the waning stages of hydrothermal alteration related to carbonatite intrusion. The highest-grade mineralization does not occupy a consistent position within the structural zones. It is interpreted to occupy structures within the zone that were still open during the last phases of hydrothermal alteration. The mineralised structures can be traced from hole to hole and are variably mineralised.
Mineralization in Area 4
The Huab Metamorphic Complex in this area is dominated by quartzo-feldspathic gneiss and metasedimentary grey gneiss with lesser amphibolite and pegmatite. The gneisses strike approximately ENE-WSW and generally dip steeply southwards.
The geological element of principal economic interest in Area 4 is a major fault, first interpreted from remote sensing data (NPA-Fugro, 2010), that strikes ENE-WSW and dips to the south, bisecting the area. The fault can be traced for several kilometres east and west of Area 4 and the offset of geological elements interpreted from hyperspectral data indicates that it has a sinistral sense of movement.
The outline of the alteration zone is highly irregular at map scale. The intense alteration in the core is typically between 15 m and 30 m wide on the surface (not true width). The less intense alteration halo exhibits gradational and diffuse contacts with the wall rocks and is typically on the order of 50 m to 60 m wide at surface but can range to more than100 m wide. At the eastern side of Area 4, the fault zone bifurcates, with the main system branching in a slightly more northerly direction and a splay of the fault continuing in an ENE direction. There is alteration and mineralization associated with both splays, but the southern splay appears to decrease in intensity along strike and alteration appears to die out within a few hundred metres.
A large number of carbonatite veins and carbonatic alteration zones have been mapped in Area 4. Although strike directions are dominantly NE-SW and NNE-SSW following the dominant structural grain of the basement, other directions are locally seen. Outside the central alteration zone, carbonatite veins are thin, (<1 m wide) and do not exhibit significant alteration beyond their margins. However, within the alteration zone, they are more continuous, and alteration is ubiquitous.
A more or less continuous zone of albite-carbonate alteration with significant grades of REE has been traced by mapping, trenching and drilling for more than 1,100 m along strike and regional geological mapping to the east and west indicates that it continues for several kilometres beyond Area 4. Within this zone, the intense alteration typically thickens and thins, and locally forms lensoid bodies that can range on surface up to about 100 m long and 10 m wide.
The mineralization in Area 4 occupies a structurally-controlled, linear alteration zone. The Area 4 alteration zone is the largest and best mineralised and is clearly manifested and easily mappable in surface outcrops by variably intense albitisation and brown carbonization with locally abundant phlogopite. Grab samples from outcrops typically return highly anomalous values of HREE and also have a very high HREE/TREE ratio.
Mineralization in Area 2B
The Huab Metamorphic Complex in Area 2 is dominated by amphibolitic schist interbanded at outcrop scale with leucocratic quartzo-feldspathic paragneiss and muscovite schist and locally intruded by coarse grained granitic pegmatites. The rocks are complexly folded on a fine scale.
Phonolite and carbonatite dykes and related alteration zones of variable orientation and thickness are common in the area. Carbonatite dykes average a few cm in width but carbonatitic and albititic alteration zones can range up to more than 10 metres in width in outcrop.
Dykes and alteration zones in this area dominantly trend from NE-SW to NNE-SSW and generally are at a considerable angle to the structural grain of the basement, which in this area trends from E-W to ESEWNW. The area is bounded to the north and south by major sinistral faults interpreted from remote sensing data (Fugro, 2010) and it may be that the dominantly NE-trends of dykes and alteration zones in Area 2B reflect fracture systems related to these linked faults.
The principal mineralization in Area 2 is the 2B zone, a wide zone of hydrothermal alteration and carbonatite intrusion. Like Area 4, the mineralization is characteristically enriched in HREE and samples throughout the alteration zone show a very high ratio of HREE to TREE. The mineralized zone has been traced in outcrop along a strike length of more than 600 m and remote sensing information and regional sampling results suggest that the zone may ultimately have a strike length of more than 3 km. The width of the zone in outcrop is variable. At its southern end, the width of the zone of alteration and carbonatization ranges from about 20 m to 35 m but thins to less than 10 m in the central section where it bifurcates into two separate zones. At the northern end, where the zone of alteration and carbonatization is again amalgamated, it is more than 60 m wide. In outcrop, it comprises a zone of massive carbonatite dykes, within a complex envelope of hydrothermal alteration and brecciation.
The REE mineralization in the Area 2B zone is restricted to the zone of alteration and carbonatization. In drillhole core, the zone is seen to consist of a zone of intense brecciation and hydrothermal alteration.
Shearing is very common in the alteration zones. In most sections, there is a prominent shear zone at or near the footwall, which is itself variably albitized and carbonatized. The shear zones range from centimetres to as much as five metres wide and the shear fabrics are cut by both albitite and carbonatite suggesting that they represent structures that pre-date the mineralization. There is a main footwall shear zone in most sections, which may be the controlling structure for much of the alteration and mineralization.