August 23 (SeeNews) - Canada's Velocity Minerals said it will begin drill testing at its Rozino gold project as well as its Dangovo prospecting license in the final quarter of 2022.
Velocity is in the final stages of securing permissions for the drill testing at the two sites, it said in a statement last week.
Alongside these, the Canadian company plans to continue drilling at additional sections of its Iglika copper-gold project in southeastern Bulgaria.
In July, the gold miner completed drilling at Voden, the first target of the 100 square kilometre Iglika exploration project, but no further work is planned there as the results were in general "disappointing," with low-grade gold intersections, including some returning 0.51 g/t gold at surface.
Rozino, Velocity's flagship gold project in Bulgaria, has a probable mineral reserve at a 0.5 g/t gold cut-off grade of 11.8 million tonnes at 1.22 g/t gold for 465,000 ounces. The Canadian company will also do testing at additional locations nearby at a depth of 1,500 metres. Life-of-mine earnings have earlier been estimated at some 293 million Canadian dollars ($224.9 million/226.6 million euro) before interest, taxes, and depreciation.
Velocity is also awaiting approval from the Bulgarian ministry of environment for proposed work on its 870-hectare Dangovo license, with an initial 2,000-metre drill programme to test priority targets east of the Makedontsi project, in which the mining company owns 70%.
In early 2021, Velocity Minerals acquired 100% interest in the Iglika project and the associated exploration licence under a previously-agreed option deal. Velocity exercised its right to acquire all of the shares of Bulgaria's Balkan Minerals Development, which held the project exploration licence, with the vendors retaining a 2% net smelter returns royalty capped at $5 million (4.6 million euro).
The Vancouver-based listed company also has 70% interests in the Tintyava property, which includes the Rozino project, the Momchil property, which includes the Obichnik project, and the Nadezhda property, which includes the Makedontsi project.
Another Canadian miner active in Bulgaria, Dundee Precious Metals (DPM), bought a 9.99% stake in Velocity in late 2020. Bulgaria's Gorubso-Kardzhali is also a minority shareholder in Velocity.
(1 Canadian dollar = 0.773 euro)