BELGRADE (Serbia), March 8 (SeeNews) – UK-based gold and copper miner Tethyan Resources has said it was granted two new exploration licenses in the south of the Timok Magmatic Complex in eastern Serbia.
The licenses, named Bucje and Zukovac, cover 200 square kilometres and are valid for an initial period of three years, following which the Mining Law of Serbia allows for the license holder to apply for extension periods of a further three and finally two years, for a total of eight years, before it is required to apply for a mining permit, Tethyan Resources said in a statement on Wednesday.
"We are very pleased to continue to grow our land position in Serbia and to have secured exploration licenses in the Timok area. It is an area well known to hold potential for the discovery of significant copper and gold deposits and we look forward to getting our geologists on the ground there to commence exploration," the president and CEO of Tethyan, Fabian Baker, said.
Tethyan currently also holds an option to purchase 100% of the Suva Ruda permit in southern Serbia from Serbian company Deep Research who acquired it in late 2015.
The Timok Magmatic Complex is a suite of Upper Cretaceous age intrusive and volcanic rocks that are the host to many significant porphyry and epithermal copper-gold deposits. Known deposits include Bor, a copper-gold high-sulphidation deposit which was in production throughout most of the 20th century, Majdenpek, a copper-gold porphyry still in production today, and the more recent discovery of Cukaru Peki by Reservoir Minerals who were subsequently acquired by Nevsun Resources in 2016.