ASX and London-listed precious and base metals hopeful, Adriatic Metals, has discovered gold mineralisation at depth in the course of peeling off more cracking high-grade base metals drill hits at its recently acquired brownfields Raska polymetallic project in Serbia.
The UK-based company’s recent round of confirmation drilling consisting of seven diamond core holes at Raska’s Kizevak historic mine area registered a string of broad, high-grade zones of polymetallic mineralisation.
Stand-out assays came from south-east of the old Kizevak open pit, including 53m going 4.2 per cent zinc, 2.0 per cent lead, 21.1 grams per tonne silver and 0.4 g/t gold from 100m including 18m at 9.0 per cent zinc, 4.1 per cent lead, 43 g/t silver and 0.6 g/t gold.
Other notable results were 22m at 4.3 per cent zinc, 1.7 per cent lead, 27.9 g/t silver and 0.4 g/t gold from 48m including 5m at 8.4 per cent zinc, 2.9 per cent lead, 59 g/t silver and 0.7 g/t gold and 4m at 9.4 per cent zinc, 3.6 per cent lead, 57 g/t silver and 0.6 g/t gold.
The encouraging intersections also included 33.5m at 3.0 per cent zinc, 1.5 per cent lead, 23.1 g/t silver and 0.2 g/t gold from 106m including 14.4m at 5.1 per cent zinc, 2.7 per cent lead, 45 g/t silver and 0.2 g/t gold.
An additional diamond drill hole and Adriatic’s first at Raska’s Sastavci historic open-pit mine 3.5km north of Kizevak not only confirmed the presence of near-surface polymetallic mineralisation but also intersected a separate, deeper broad auriferous structure. The newly discovered gold-bearing vein zone at Sastavci returned an intriguing assay of 31m grading 1.3 g/t gold from 279m including 1m at 13.6 g/t.
The same hole went 9m at 4.4 per cent zinc, 1.2 per cent lead, 18 g/t silver and 0.4 g/t gold from 6m including 1.9m at 12.5 per cent zinc, 4.8 per cent lead, 72 g/t silver and 1.7 g/t gold. It also generated an intercept of 10m at 3.0 per cent zinc, 1.0 per cent lead, 17 g/t silver and 0.5 g/t gold from 28 metres including 1.8m at 10.7 per cent zinc, 3.8 per cent lead, 64 g/t silver and 0.4 g/t gold.
Adriatic Metals Managing Director, Paul Cronin said: “Our first true exploration holes at the Raska project in Serbia have shown the potential scale of this high-grade, shallow deposit.”
“At Sastavci, our first hole encountered strong near-surface mineralisation, but the additional gold intercept has added further excitement to this historically significant deposit.”
In October, the company assumed ownership of Raska after wrapping up the capital acquisition to the value of approximately C$14.7 million of fellow precious and base metals company, Tethyan Resource Corp, expanding Adriatic’s footprint in two mining-friendly jurisdictions in the Balkans.
Adriatic has previously indicated it is hoping to put out a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate for Kizevak and Sastavci in the March quarter next year.
Historical non-JORC resource estimates were attached to the Kizevak and Sastavci deposits. The numbers were 6.2 million tonnes of ore at 5.32 per cent zinc, 3.22 per cent lead and 48 g/t silver and 1.35 million tonnes of ore at 4.04 per cent zinc, 1.94 per cent lead and 30 g/t silver, respectively.
The way its drilling has been delineating and confirming thick, near-surface zones of polymetallic mineralisation, Adriatic seems to be building a solid platform of drill data from which to launch its maiden resource estimates as it looks to fully drill-test the two targets.
Its flagship Vares silver-lead-zinc project, located in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina roughly 200km from Raska as the crow flies, is currently the subject of a definitive feasibility study evaluating a proposed US$173 million development of a mining and processing operation.
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By Matt Birney
