Adriatic to step up exploration at new Balkans ground

Adriatic Metals has secured an exploration permit for additional mineral concession areas at its developing Vares silver-zinc-lead project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The dual ASX and London-listed company was awarded the concession areas covering 32 square kilometres last year and has already completed an initial heliborne magnetics and radiometric geophysical survey across the new ground-holdings.

Adriatic says receiving the exploration permit from the country’s Federal Ministry of Energy, Mining and Industry increases its overall exploration landholdings to 41sq.km and means that it can now get boots on the ground for channel sampling and drilling of the newly acquired terrain.

Earlier preliminary exploration carried out ahead of the exploration permit application last year included soil and rock chip geochemical sampling and field mapping.

Adriatic says the reconnaissance work detected several prospective targets.

Data from the recent radiometric survey – conducted in April this year – has also buoyed the $576 million market-cap company.

It points to a prospective alteration corridor running centrally through the now expanded exploration permit area’s estimated circa-22km of strike.

Initial analysis of the radiometric survey, designed principally to map alteration, suggests the known resources and existing Vares exploration prospects generally straddle the edges of potassium-rich alteration hotspots.

According to Adriatic, these edges occur where alteration conditions appear to be most suited to hosting massive sulphide-style mineralisation.

The initial observation not only points to the distribution of the existing exploration targets but also indicates several new zones of interest that are yet to be explored.

Adriatic Metals Managing Director, Paul Cronin said: “I am especially excited with the initial results from the radiometric survey, which have better identified the size and continuity of the known alteration system through the Vares project. The edges of this alteration corridor are strongly correlated with previously identified mineralisation and our existing exploration targets. This has identified exciting new target areas, which we will follow up with further field work and update the market in due course.”

Adriatic last week clinched an urban planning permit in relation to Vares’ key Rupice underground polymetallic deposit, the penultimate approval before it can obtain an all-important mining or exploitation permit.

The company has already nailed down a mining permit for Vares’ smaller, nearby Veovaca open-pit deposit.

Management is hoping to table a definitive feasibility study on the proposed Vares project development in the September quarter this year.

Projections in last year’s pre-feasibility study on Vares included an eye-catching EBITDA averaging US$251 million per annum for the first five years of metal concentrate production and a pre-production capital cost of US$173 million for construction of the mining and processing operation.

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