ASX listed Adriatic Metals has found a silver lining at its brownfields, zinc-heavy polymetallic Vares project in central Bosnia and Herzegovina - particularly at the Rupice target, where recent drilling returned an intercept of 6 metres at an impressive 1,019 grams per tonne silver, 11.3g/t gold, 13.1% zinc, 12.5% lead and 1.3% copper from a depth of 238m.
The drill rig also hit a 48m section going 70g/t silver, 0.72g/t gold, 2.3% zinc, 2% lead, 0.6% copper and 48% barite, including 26m at 79% barite.
Other promising results were 10m at 58g/t silver, 0.15g/t gold, 3.5% zinc, 3.6% lead and 0.6% copper from 248m and 12m at 253g/t silver, 1.15g/t gold, 3% zinc, 1.8% lead, 0.5% copper and 56% barite from 262m.
Rupice’s mineralisation now extends across over 500m of strike length and remains open to the north in unexplored ground and to the south towards the Jurasevac-Brestic prospect.
Located 15 kilometres north west of Vares’ other main exploration target, Veovaca, on the western slope of the Kiprovac Ridge, Rupice has been looked at by explorers since 1952 primarily because of its barite and polymetallic mineralisation.
According to Adriatic, less than one third of Rupice’s historical drill holes have been assayed for silver and gold, which the company no doubt finds amusing given the strong presence of silver in the assays it has collected from its own recent field activities.
Step-out drilling to the south at Rupice has so far been confined to two holes, with the most southerly one returning the above-mentioned 10m intercept and another 4m at 86g/t silver, 0.7g/t gold, 6.4% zinc, 5.9% lead and 0.7% copper from 248m.
Meanwhile, step-out drilling to the north, which was also confined to two holes, revealed the 6m 1,019g/t silver hit and a wider interval of 18m at 22g/t silver, 0.15g/t gold, 1.1% zinc, 0.6% lead and 0.1% copper from 260m.
The most northerly hole hit two thick zones with 14m at 130g/t silver, 0.33g/t gold, 1.6% zinc, 1.4% lead and 0.2% copper from 246m and 26m at 18g/t silver, 0.11g/t gold, 0.7% zinc, 0.6% lead and 0.3% copper from 302m.
The Vares project is about 50km north of Sarajevo and was a historical source of lead, zinc and barite until its operations were closed at the end of the 1980s due to political instability.
Adriatic Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Paul Cronin said: “Whilst our drilling of the extensions of the Rupice mineralisation has been restricted to just a few holes to the north and south while we awaited forestry approval for access, our results continue to confirm that the mineralisation continues north into the new licence extension area, and south towards our Jurasevac-Brestic prospect over an open strike length of 500m.”
“The delay has given us the opportunity to improve our drill coverage to provide a better understanding of the geotechnical and structural characteristics of our deposit which has greatly assisted our mining studies and the scoping study”.
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By Matt Birney
