Dundee Precious Metals Inc. discovered a high-grade deposit at the Čoka Rakita exploration prospect in eastern Serbia and expects “exceptional results” from recent drilling.
The company announced Monday it found a shallow-dipping tabular body between 250 and 450 metres below the surface, drilled over an area measuring 500 metres long, 250 metres wide and up to 80 metres thick, which remains open in multiple directions.
It also reported that approximately 40,000 metres of infill, extensional and target delineation drilling are planned for the year with a focus on further evaluating the deposit geometry, grade continuity and mineral resource potential.
Preliminary metallurgical test results by the company indicate that the mineralized material is amenable to conventional flotation and produces a clean gold concentrate, achieving total combined (flotation and tails leach) gold recoveries of greater than 93 per cent. Further test work will potentially improve overall gold recovery using a combined gravity.
The program included drilling 8,750 metres and completing ten holes, with five additional holes currently ongoing. It was designed to follow up on positive results returned from holes drilled prior to the expiry of the previous exploration licence.
The company’s new high-grade intercepts include:
- RADDMET01 – 40 metres at 63.46 g/t Au and 0.11 % Cu from 517 metres depth (including one metre grading 2,140 g/t Au from 548 to 549 metres)
- RIDD001 – 71 metres at 3.46 g/t Au and 0.16% Cu from 454 metres depth
- RIDD004 – 65 metres at 13.40 g/t Au from 511 metres including 38 metres at 19.43 g/t Au from 537 metres depth
- Expands on positive results from previously drilled holes, which include:
- RADD013 – 36 metres at 4.41 g/t Au, including 6 metres at 11.44 g/t Au and 5 metres at 10.66 g/t Au, from 567 metres depth
- RADD020 – 26 metres at 7.52 g/t Au, including 6 metres at 24.94 g/t Au, from 533 metres depth
The Čoka Rakita prospect is located three kilometres southeast of the Bigar Hill sediment-hosted deposit and forms part of the Timok Magmatic Complex (TMC) in eastern Serbia. The surface footprint of the target, which was delineated by a combination of soil geochemistry, alteration mapping and geophysical signatures, extends more than 1,000 metres by 500 metres.
“We are excited to announce these exceptional results from recent drilling completed at the Čoka Rakita prospect in Serbia. Drilling has defined a large, high-grade footprint that remains open in multiple directions, which we believe provides additional upside potential,” said David Rae, President and CEO of Dundee Precious Metals.
“The discovery of a high-grade deposit in close proximity to our Timok gold project is an exciting development for the overall property package. Our activities in Serbia will now focus on exploration at Čoka Rakita as we continue to assess the mineral resource potential of this new discovery.”
Dundee Precious Metals is a Canadian-based international gold mining company with operations and projects located in Bulgaria, Namibia, Ecuador and Serbia, Muggle Head reports.