Midas Minerals has opened a new high-grade copper front at Hartbeespoort in Namibia, with shallow drilling returning up to 4 metres at 9.83% copper. At nearby Spaatzu, mineralisation now extends beyond 1.6 kilometres as the company advances several resource estimates for early 2027.
- 4m at 9.83% copper within 14m at 3.86% copper at Hartbeespoort
- Hartbeespoort drilling spans 3km, with assays pending for 39 holes
- Spaatzu mineralisation now extends beyond 1.6km of strike
- Eight rigs are operating across the Otavi project
- Resource estimates for T-13, Deblin and Spaatzu targeted for Q1 2027
Hartbeespoort delivers shallow high-grade copper
Midas Minerals Limited (ASX:MM1) has found a potentially important new copper zone just 5 kilometres south-east of its Deblin deposit, where the first eight reverse-circulation holes at Hartbeespoort returned shallow copper, gold and silver mineralisation. The standout result was 14 metres at 3.86% copper from 60 metres, including 4 metres at 9.83% copper and 15.5 grams per tonne silver.
Other early results included 7 metres at 2.37% copper from 24 metres and 3 metres at 2.73% copper, with the latter also carrying 1.50 grams per tonne gold and 23 grams per tonne silver. These are downhole intervals, however, and Midas said true widths at Hartbeespoort are not yet known.
The results come from a first-pass program of 47 RC holes totalling 3,427 metres across a prospect stretching about 3 kilometres. Assays have arrived for only eight holes, leaving 39 outstanding, with further results expected during the fourth quarter of 2026. Midas plans follow-up drilling to clarify the geometry of the shallow oxide-transition mineralisation and test deeper sulphide targets.
Spaatzu extends the copper-silver footprint
At Spaatzu, step-out drilling continues to push the south-eastern extension outward. The latest results include 15 metres at 1.20% copper and 69.9 grams per tonne silver from 73 metres, with a 4-metre interval running at 2.54% copper and 173.8 grams per tonne silver. Another hole returned 6 metres at 1.85% copper and 62.2 grams per tonne silver.
The deposit now exceeds 1.6 kilometres of strike, with continuous mineralisation confirmed over 600 metres and assays pending across another 300 metres. The prospective stratigraphy remains open to the east and south. The update builds on the earlier Spaatzu extension, which had confirmed mineralisation across 1.5 kilometres.
Three resource estimates target early 2027
Midas is running eight rigs across its 1,776-square-kilometre Otavi project. Three diamond rigs are focused on Deblin and two on T-13, while drilling continues at Spaatzu and follow-up work is planned at Hartbeespoort when a rig becomes available. The company is targeting an updated T-13 resource and initial resources for Deblin and Spaatzu in the first quarter of calendar 2027, against the backdrop of the eight-rig Otavi program reported in late October.
Midas reported cash of $22.7 million at 30 September 2026, providing the stated funding base for the current drilling campaign. The exploration results are encouraging, but they remain an early-stage picture: much of the drilling is still awaiting assays, Hartbeespoort’s true widths are unresolved, and no resource has yet been declared for either Hartbeespoort or Spaatzu. The Q1 2027 estimates will need to establish whether the expanding footprints translate into coherent, potentially economic resources rather than a collection of attractive intercepts.
Bottom Line?
The immediate catalyst is not another headline intercept but the conversion of pending assays and wide-spaced drilling into resource estimates with credible continuity and scale.
Questions in the middle?
- Will the remaining Hartbeespoort assays confirm a continuous high-grade system beyond the first eight holes?
- How much of Spaatzu’s expanding strike can be converted into an initial mineral resource?
- Can the T-13, Deblin and Spaatzu resource updates support a coherent future mining concept?