January 20 (SeeNews) - Canadian mineral exploration company Dundee Precious Metal, DPM, said it has discovered high-grade gold deposits at the Coka Rakita target, in eastern Serbia, grading up to 63.6 grams per tonne.
Preliminary metallurgical test results show that the mineralised material produces a clean gold concentrate, DPM said in a statement earlier this week.
“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 Coka Rakita as we continue to assess the mineral resource potential of this new discovery,” said David Rae, CEO of DPM.
The potential reserves are important in terms of gold ore capacity, which in the future could be of great importance for the economy of the entire country, and particularly eastern Serbia, energy minister Dubravka Djedovic was quoted as saying in a government press release.
The project is still in its research phase, and further drilling is required to verify the amount of resources and reserves available, Djedovic added.
DPM’s Timok gold project is estimated to cost $211 million (195.2 million euro), and is expected to produce approximately 547,000 gold ounces over an eight-year mine life.
(1 euro = 1.0811 U.S.dollars)