 ANNOUNCEMENT ASX IPO Kaoko aims to unlock Africa’s next world class copper belt
Copper is sitting near all time highs, as Kaoko lists on the ASX seeking a major discovery in Namibia’s Kaoko Belt. Pic: Getty Images.
A quiet revolution is taking place in sub-Saharan Africa, which has emerged as the fastest growing source of copper supply globally. That makes it the unlikely crucible of the next industrial revolution, with AI infrastructure, energy networks and the electric vehicle market fuelling rampant demand growth. The Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2024 passed Peru as the world’s second largest copper producer at 3.3Mtpa, while Zambia is producing 640,000tpa and has an official target of 3Mtpa by early next decade. Botswana’s Kalahari Copper Belt has seen two of the world’s largest recent copper discoveries – Motheo and Khoemacau. Nearby, overlooked Namibia has become the next frontier. Intrepid explorers are now returning to the Kaoko Copper Belt, a sedimentary geological system which shows all the hallmarks of the Central African Copper Belt. One of those early movers lists today on the ASX – Kaoko Metals (ASX:KAO). After raising $6.5 million at 20c in an IPO that could have been filled twice over, it’s an opportunity to get on the ground floor of what could be the next emerging district for copper discovery at its Chalkos project. And it will be the first float arriving on the scene with copper at near record prices of US$13,135/t. 
The Kaoko Belt may be underexplored compared to the renowned Central African and Kalahari Belts, but it has ‘pedigree’. Pic: Kaoko. Let’s unpack the upside Running 400km from southern Angola into north-western Namibia, the Kaoko Belt was a significant copper producer for over 100 years. Known as the Green Hill for its oxidised copper outcrop, the Tsumeb deposit in the Otavi Mountainland was mined, smelted and traded by the Ndonga, Haiǁom, and Herero ethnic groups even before Germany colonised the region in 1884. Shafts were sunk at the first commercial mine in 1907, eventually producing 30Mt at 4.3% copper up to 1996. Ripper grades. With copper prices now booming the time is right to hunt red metal elephants. “We describe it as a vast underexplored copper belt with world-class potential,” Kaoko Metals managing director Gerard O’Donovan said. “Everyone has focused on the Central African Copper Belt purely because of the success of Ivanhoe Mines and Robert Friedland (at the Kamoa-Kakula mine) and all that. It (hosts) nearly five billion tonnes of ore with serious grades. “If you line up the stratigraphic columns of the Central African Copper Belt and the Kaoko Belt side by side, they look very similar. “We really wanted to look at Kaoko, and the reason we were attracted to it is it's the least explored, but it has pedigree.” 
Chalkos sits along strike from Midas’ Otavi and the historic Tsumeb mine. Pic: Kaoko The size of the prize has been demonstrated 100km to the south-east at Midas Minerals and its Otavi project, which contains a resource of 10.5Mt at 1.6% copper and 21g/t silver. Its shares have run 510% in the past year to 98c at a $235 million market cap – Midas’ latest drill results are some of the highest grade in recent memory, including 16.3m at 12.99% C Kaoko has already been operating in the district for 15 months after acquiring the project from renowned South African geologist Philip Le Roux and Jurie Wessels, the key players behind Namibian tantalum play Arcadia Minerals. It got in ahead of a pegging rush that followed Midas’ success. Le Roux and Wessels discovered 700m of outcrop at the Donkey Hill prospect, with rock chips grading as high as 69.6% copper and 2030g/t silver. Grab samples at the Otniel prospect ran to 52.7% Cu. Detailed mapping and sampling, geophysical surveys, geochemistry and diamond drilling are all planned post-IPO. The company is also earning into Arcadia’s Karibib prokect in the prestigious Damara Belt, which hosts major gold deposits including Navachab, Twin Hills and $665m capped WIA Gold’s Kokoseb. It has high grade copper, silver, gold and tungsten values not just in rock chips, but drilling as well. 
Kaoko arrives on the ASX with two exciting projects in Namibia known to host copper, silver, gold and tungsten mineralisation. Pic: Kaoko Copper: The time is now There has arguably been no better time in history to start a new copper project. Prices are sitting near all-time highs at around US$13,000/t, having briefly run beyond US$14,000/t in January. S&P Global, one of the world’s most respected forecasters, says demand will rise from 28Mt to 42Mt in just 15 years. 
Chalkos already has high grade copper occurrences, with 40km of the Otavi Subgroup beneath its two exploration licences. Pic: Kaoko That’s a growth rate of 50% – or an additional Escondida each year. No mines close to Escondida’s 1Mtpa scale have been found since it opened in 1991. And those large operations that move the dial have been flimsy. First Quantum’s Cobre Panama mine – around 1.2% of world supply – was shut due to community discord in 2023. A guidance downgrade will result in a cumulative 210,000t of lost output at Kamoa-Kakula over the next two years. Freeport’s Grasberg mine in Indonesia is yet to recover from a fatal mudslide last year. S&P suggest primary copper supply could rise from 23Mt to 27Mt by 2030, but without intervention will fall to just 22Mt by 2040 due to reserve and grade decline. That provides an incredible set-up for copper, with emerging demand drivers in AI and electrification only in their infancy. “The supply deficit is just growing and I feel like I'm parroting what I used to say back in the day about silver, but it is very similar,” O’Donovan said. “Production is declining, mines are closing, and then greenfield exploration to make discoveries is not huge. “Couple that with the world we live in and the way it's moving. Everything is stored on the cloud now.” Meet the Team A key figure in the early days of $20bn lithium giant PLS, O’Donovan has pedigree in a number of recent IPOs. Most notably he was involved in Sun Silver, the multi-bagger developer of the Maverick Springs project in Nevada which pre-empted last year’s silver boom. Prior to that O’Donovan led the spin out and IPO of lithium and germanium explorer Battery Age Minerals Mark Thompson, the executive chair and founder of Swedish graphite play Talga Group has been appointed non-executive chair. He brings 30 years of experience around the world in minerals and geoscience, also serving as a non-executive director of Accelerate Resources and previously founding and serving on the board of ASX 200 gold miner Catalyst Metals. Rounding out the three person board is non-executive director Jody Dahrouge. Best known as the Canadian geologist whose company identified the Shaakichiuwaanan lithium, Cisco lithium and Ashram rare earths discoveries in Canada, it’s Dahrouge’s first foray onto an ASX company board. Experienced Perth corporate accountant Brett Tucker has joined as CFO and company secretary.      |
