Kavango Resources plc (LSE:KAV), the Southern Africa focused metals exploration and gold production company, is pleased to announce the start of resource drilling at the Bill’s Luck Gold Mine (“Bill’s Luck” or the “Mine”) on the Hillside Project (“Hillside”), Zimbabwe.
The drill programme is designed to accelerate the Company’s strategy to increase gold production, in what is increasingly believed to be a significant gold mineralised system at Bill’s Luck.
The multiphase resource drilling programme has the aim of defining a maiden mineral resource estimate (“MRE”) that can inform future mine planning and scheduling at Bill’s Luck. The programme will comprise an initial wider spaced diamond drill programme followed by infill diamond drilling and a separate reverse circulation (“RC”) drill programme along strike to the northwest and southeast.
Highlights:
· The primary objective of the drilling is to define a gold resource that is mineable for a minimum of three years.
o Kavango believes there is significant future upside potential at Bill’s Luck beyond the initial targeted maiden gold resource.
· The initial diamond drilling will consist of 1,400 metres (“m”) and will aim to define an economic mineable resource in the vicinity of the Main Shaft and Roscor Shaft. The drilling seeks to confirm and extend upon mineralised zones already identified from previous exploration.
o This first phase of diamond drilling is designed to identify and characterise the multiple shear hosted gold zones along a 200m strike of the Bills Luck Mine area.
· The infill RC drilling will focus on supporting future life of mine planning by testing lateral continuity of the shear hosted gold zones along strike immediately to the northwest and southeast with potential down dip depth extensions. The initial phase will include 10 drill holes planned for a total of 1,400m.
· Data from the drilling programme is expected to support resource modelling and detailed mine planning.
Ben Turney, Chief Executive of Kavango Resources, commented:
“Kavango’s strategy in Zimbabwe is to discover new gold mines, in known producing areas, and bring these into production as quickly as we can. Our investment model is based on initial three-year mineable resources because we’re anticipating payback periods in the region of 18 months.
“Now that we are making the progression from gold exploration to production, it is an exciting time to be involved in this business, especially given the speed at which we are moving. Our resource drill campaign at Bill’s Luck is strategically designed to give us a clear path to three years of production. This has the potential to generate sufficient free cash flow to fund our operations and drill out larger reserves.
“In the case of Bill’s Luck, our team is of the firm belief that this mine has the capacity to deliver much more gold production over a significantly longer time period.
“Our work suggests the gold mineralised strike at Bill’s Luck hosts a series of west plunging ore shoots. Kavango is now targeting the main shoot at Bill’s Luck Main Shaft and will also test potential ore shoots at Roscor and West Shaft. Roscor and West Shaft are currently being mined by local contract miners and their ore is being processed at our Hillside milling centre. This has provided useful exploration intelligence, ahead of drilling, and increases our confidence.
“A successful campaign will underpin the investment case for the placement of the 200tpd production plant at Bill’s Luck, as we work to scale up to a 250tpd gold production operation by the first half of 2026.”
Resource Drilling to Advance Kavango Towards Larger-Scale Production
The phased drill programme will start with diamond drilling, comprising up to 4,000m centred on the existing mine development at Main Shaft and extending northwest towards West Shaft and southeast towards Roscor Shaft to inform immediate planning and development work. This will be followed by up to 4,500m of Reverse Circulation (“RC”) drilling.
FIGURE 1: Long Section looking NE of the projected ore shoots at Main Shaft and Roscor Shaft, with overlays of current mine workings (to 3 Level), and gold intercepts from previous exploration drilling.
The drilling program is designed to inform a resource estimation from within the current three gold producing areas at Bills Luck (Main Shaft, Roscor Shaft, and West Shaft) along 200m of horizontal strike and to a vertical depth of 150m (5 Level). Multiple holes will be drilled from the same collar positions to intercept the ore shoots at different vertical depths. Current mining operations at Main Shaft extend to 90m vertical depth (3 Level).
The strike at Bill’s Luck remains open in both directions for future exploration. In addition, recent structural analysis at Bill’s Luck (announced >>> 28 July 2025) suggests the ore shoots are also open at depth.
FIGURE 2: Oblique Long Section looking north through Bill’s Luck, showing mined out areas around Main Shaft, Roscor Shaft and West Shaft, together with surface artisanal workings along the open strike. Also displayed are the recently announced two significant intersections from underground diamond drilling demonstrating an increase of width and grade below 3 Level.
The start of both diamond and RC drilling is aimed at establishing a maiden MRE capable of supporting commercial mining and processing operations for a minimum of three years. This work is a key step toward a near-term investment decision to install a 200tpd pilot scale production plant, with the goal of increasing ore processing capacity to 250tpd by the first half of 2026.
Kavango’s technical team, through careful interpretation of recent structural mapping and analysis, has recognised the possibility for a series of high-grade ore shoots along the mineralised strike at Bill’s Luck, including the Main Shaft, Roscor Shaft and West Shaft zones. The Company believes that successfully defining these ore shoots could not only confirm the viability of a three-year mine life but also open up targets for future exploration and development.
The initial phase of the diamond drilling programme will comprise approximately 1,400m focused on confirming the structure, width and continuity of the gold mineralisation around the Main Shaft and between Roscor and West Shafts. This will be complemented by an initial RC drilling campaign of up to 1,400m, aimed at testing near-surface mineralisation along strike to support future mine life planning and resource growth.
Should these campaigns deliver positive results, Kavango has the option to expand the programmes through additional infill drilling. This would enhance confidence in resource estimates, support detailed mine planning, and potentially justify a much larger production profile and extension of mine life in the future.
Kavango’s confidence in Bill’s Luck is underpinned by recent underground drilling, which yielded two high-grade gold intercepts and confirmed that mineralisation continues from the current mining level (3 Level) to at least 4 Level. These results suggest that the deposit could host a much larger gold system than initially anticipated and support the Company’s belief that Bill’s Luck has the potential to sustain gold production far beyond the initial three-year resource target.
With the commencement of this resource drilling programme, Kavango is positioning itself to take full advantage of Bill’s Luck’s emerging potential and to create a strong, cash-generative platform for future growth.
Bill’s Luck Area – Structural and Mineralisation Overview
The Bill’s Luck area, situated in the southern portion of the Balmoral Magmatic Complex within the Upper Greenstone Belt of the Filabusi region, is structurally complex and highly prospective for gold exploration with several historic mines. The area forms part of a polymetamorphic terrane affected by multiple deformation phases, with the D2 tectono-metamorphic event playing a dominant role in shaping the current structural architecture.
During the D2 tectono-metamorphic event, the Balmoral Complex underwent greenschist facies metamorphism and intense folding, resulting in a characteristic fabric of intersecting foliations and NE-plunging lineations. Strain during the later D2 phase became strongly partitioned into a network of dextral oblique shear zones trending parallel to regional-scale fold axial planes.
These D2 shear zones are the primary structural controls for gold mineralisation and are associated with transpressional deformation.
Bill’s Luck Mine
Kavango’s Bill’s Luck Mine hosts a major shear zone with several minor parallel and splay structures, which the Company’s technical team interprets as containing numerous mineralised reefs. The main structure changes orientation from ESE to SSE in its eastern segment, forming a trailing imbricated termination suggestive of a favourable dilation zone for mineral deposition and the location of at least one inferred “ore shoot”.
Gold mineralisation at Bill’s Luck is structurally and hydrothermally controlled, predominantly occurring within and along the margins of these shear zones. Alteration is characterised by quartz-sericite-chlorite assemblages with disseminated sulphides, often vein-controlled and associated with syntectonic quartz-sulphide veins.
Zones of higher vein density and alteration coincide with areas of stronger deformation, with quartz boudinage, pressure shadows, and mylonitic veins serving as key mineral traps. Late stage mineralised veins also crosscut the earlier mylonitic fabric, indicating prolonged and possibly multi-phase mineralisation.
The structural complexity, combined with the presence of high-strain domains, linking shear structures, and favourable vein-hosting environments, makes the Bill’s Luck area a high-potential target for structurally-controlled gold exploration within a dextral transpressional regime.
Kavango’s Operations in Zimbabwe
Kavango is exploring for gold deposits in Zimbabwe that have the potential to be developed into commercial scale production quickly through modern mechanised mining and processing. The Company is targeting both open-pit and underground opportunities.
Kavango has two projects on the Filabusi greenstone belt, Hillside and Nara.
Kavango owns 100% of the Hillside Gold Project, having exercised its option in April 2024. Here, the Company has three high priority targets it aims to bring into production over the next 18 months: Bill’s Luck, Steenbok and Nightshift. At Nightshift, Kavango is investigating the potential for a selective open-pit mining operation, followed by underground mechanised mining. Meanwhile, at Steenbok, Kavango is pursuing a high-grade mechanised underground mining opportunity. Kavango is currently analysing the latest drill data from Bill’s Luck and will provide an update shortly.
In addition, Kavango will soon acquire 100% of the Nara Gold Project, having exercised its option in June 2025. Here, the Company is exploring for a large-scale, mechanisable underground gold deposit. The primary target zone is around the historic N1 mine, where the Company is assessing the potential to expand artisanal workings both at depth and along strike.
Further information in respect of the Company and its business interests is provided on the Company’s website at www.kavangoresources.com and on X at @KavangoRes.
For further information please contact:
Kavango Resources plc
Ben Turney
+46 7697 406 06
