Local geologists say the country’s eastern half has been well prospected and to an extent, well developed, as seen in the establishment of several mines that have supported the well-documented mineral-led revolution of post-Independence Botswana.
The mineral potential of the west, in particular its southern fringes, is relatively unknown, with many of the potential riches lying under sands that can reach more than 1,000 metres deep.
And therein, Botswana Geoscience Institute (BGI) CEO, Olefile Mashabile explains, lies the reason behind the disparity.
“On the eastern side, there are more outcrops or surface exploration of rocks and it is easier to conduct geological activities.
“You go to the west and find that all the rocks are underneath sand cover, making exploration difficult, expensive and risky.
“In exploration you can sample the soil, but it does not answer all the questions and you have to go to the rocks, which in the west means drilling hundreds of metres or even more than a kilometre to reach the rock.
“From Gaborone to Kasane, we have surface expression of minerals in the rocks but as you move towards Gantsi, it’s sand,” he says.
Preliminary probes were conducted in the west more than 60 years ago by mineral explorers who braved the wild, terrain and noted the presence of “quartz veins rich in copper, silver and lead”. Capital costs as well as the absence of supporting infrastructure such as electricity and railway, conspired to ensure that the west remained wild while the east lapped up all the focus.
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 meant explorers overlooked the region in favour of more well-known ore zones, often in the east.
Those who took the leap and put spades in the ground have rued their courage. The include Discovery Metals which spent US$175 million developing a mine on the Kalahari Copperbelt in 2012, only to collapse three years later due to high operating costs associated with the lack of electric grid access and weak base metal prices.
And yet, today, the BGI is reporting high demand for exploration licences in the west and a flurry in activity by those already holding ground there. Data from the parastatal indicates that as at the last count 1,054 licences are active in the west, with 533 new applications, representing a rare peak in demand.
Anchoring the demand is the growing body of baseline data that the BGI has been able to develop about the geology of the west in recent years. Since 2017, the BGI has updated its database on the geology of the northern half of western Botswana through aeromagnetic surveys and followed these up with gravity surveys, geochemical studies and soil samples. The three-year project ended recently and has provided valuable baseline data which explorers can access and use to narrow their searchers on the ground.
Under the National Development Plan 12, which starts in April next year, the BGI plans to do similar studies in the southern fringes of the west, which represent the last untapped frontier for mineral exploration in the country.
The shift westwards is also driven by the global search for rare earth minerals, the increasingly valuable elements highly sought after for their use in more than 200 products ranging from consumer electronics to renewable energy and from wind turbines to electric cars.
Mount Burgess, an Australian explorer that has been active in the west since 2003, excited the market a few years ago with the surprise discovery of vanadium, a lesser-known metal valuable in the manufacturing industry due to its corrosion-resistant qualities.
This week, Mount Burgess announced the discovery of gallium, a soft metal used primarily in electronic circuits, semiconductors and LEDs and whose prices recently increased to US$826.50 per kilogramme.
“The activity and demand for licences in the west is the highest peak that has been and it’s because when one person next to you finds something, you also believe you will find something,” explains Mashabile.
“In addition, this is about the knowledge we have created and the data sharing we have done because we avail that information and the different eyes that come through us are starting to see new prospects and discoveries.
“Once they get that data, they follow up with exploration and find those unknowns hidden there.”
The higher availability of data, together with the demand for valuable minerals has also combined with the development of advanced exploration technology and methods over the years, enabling explorers to look beneath the west’s soils with less expense and difficulty.
The major game-changer in the west, however, has been the finalisation of the P2.4 billion North West Transmission Grid (Phase 1), which has brought grid power to the area, promising the reduction of costs for explorers and producers alike. Where Discovery Metals was burning through P26 million in diesel per month in generating its own electricity, miners in the west can now connect to the grid and lower their operating costs.
The development of major mines in the area, such as Khoemacau’s US$412 million copper mine and Sandfire’s US$260 million development in the same area, has been anchored on the provision of cheaper grid power.
But it is the possibility of finding the rare earths that primarily has mineral explorers salivating. Mashabile says while Africa is viewed as holding the potential for these minerals, Botswana is increasingly seen as the most preferred address to search for them.
“For rare earths, Africa is the future and the destination within that is Botswana,” he says.
“We are partnering with the Japanese and the US to do exploration because the future for renewables and other critical minerals is sitting in Africa.
“Botswana has the enabling government policies, regulations and mineral attractiveness, as well as the baseline information available for explorers.
“Previously, the focus in local mineral exploration was on economic scale, but with rare earths, they occur in small amounts and the focus is on optimal mining because the costs can be high.”
The lure of the unknown beckons for rare earth and energy mineral hunters in the west and the baseline data provided by BGI has triggered a stampede to be among the first to put a peg in the ground.
Kavango Resources, one of the more established explorers in the southern fringes of the country’s west, says the area is not a playground. After years of hunting, with prospecting licences that date back to 2012, Kavango is hoping to announce significant discoveries soon.
“This is an area where other people fear to tread,” the company’s managing director and veteran geologist, Tiyapo Ngwisanyi, told a recent conference.
“We recently drilled two boreholes in an area known as the Kalahari Suture Zone North and we had to go down for 1,000 metres, which shows how serious we are.
“We are not exploring anywhere else except in this district and that should also show how serious we are.”
According to Ngwisanyi, the company believes “something can be found” in the under-searched areas of Botswana in the Kalahari district.
“Prior to us being there, there has been very little exploration and we want to go to the under-explored areas.
“This is the frontier of exploration, the unexplored, deep cover areas where you cannot use traditional methods of exploration and you have to opt for different, innovative ways.
“We are a tech-driven company and geophysics is our main driver.
“We have partnerships to support us such as a memorandum of understanding with the University of Botswana where students come into the areas to help unlock the potential there.
“We want to convert our targets to drill ready status.”
The shift to the west is only accelerating and with the country approaching the tail-end of the diamond revolution, the types of minerals potentially lying under the Kalahari sands hold the promise of a more value-added economic growth trajectory for the future.
