Namibia’s Central Iron Potential

BIO OF FIELD GUIDES:

JP van den Berg:

JP is an exploration geologist for Minrom Consulting. He holds a BSc honours degree in Geology from Stellenbosch University and a master’s degree in Exploration Geology from Rhodes University. He has experience in numerous commodities including base metals, critical metals and precious metals. His most significant commodity experience is related to copper, cobalt, iron, manganese, gold and graphite and has worked in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, DRC, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Ghana and Chile managing exploration projects, supervising quality control protocols and performing geological due diligence. He is a registered Professional Natural Scientist (Pr.Sci.Nat.) with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP) and is a member of the Geological Society of South Africa (GSSA), Geological Society of Namibia and the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG).

THE EXPERIENCE:

The Dordabis Iron Project is located approximately 63 kilometres south-east of Windhoek. Geologically the project is located within the Southern Marginal Zone of the Damara Orogenic Belt formed during the Pan African Orogeny. The banded iron formation, associated with the project area and more commonly known as the Khomas Itabirites, is associated with the Naos Formation which forms part of the Hakos Group (Miller, 1983). The Naos Formation, interpreted to be a thick laterally extensive outer-shelf, upper slope and possibly lower slope sedimentary succession that formed on the passive continental margin, was deposited during the Marinoan global glaciation event. This sedimentary formation consists of a thick succession of light grey, pelitic schist and quartzite interbedded by layers and lenses of metavolcanic amphibolite and amphibolite-chlorite schist with associated tillites. The lower part of the Naos Formation consists of well-stratified massive to layered conglomerate units, ferruginous schist and tillites which grade laterally into thin layers of banded iron formation.

The mine has successfully implemented a pilot plant processing operation which successfully exported 52k tonnes of seaborne iron ore fines (59% Fe) in August 2021. The Dordabis project is planned based on an open pit mining operation using a conventional gravity and magnetic separation processing route to produce up to 2.0 million tons per year of high-grade iron ore concentrates (66% Fe) for 16 years and at its full potential ramp up to 4.0 million tons per year for a further 20-30 years. The project is the foundation for the vision to become a vertically integrated green steel producer in one of the world’s leading green hydrogen hubs. Hyron Steel Africa & Lodestone Namibia aim to produce finished green steel produced from Namibian resources in a traceable and sustainable way that recognises fossil fuel driven steelmaking will become obsolete in the generations to come.

The field trip will include a general introduction to the local geological setting, Fe deposition model and local variations observed within the mineralised formation. This will be followed by a visit to the two main ore bodies defined from the previous exploration drilling campaigns followed by a visit to the core yard and inspection of the drill core from the two deposits.