Dundee unveils maiden gold resource at Coka Rakita
Dundee Precious Metals Inc. [TSX-DPM] has announced a maiden resource estimate for the company’s 100%-owned Coka Rakita gold project in Serbia, where it announced a high-grade discovery in January, 2023.
The inferred resource estimate is pegged at 9.97 million tonnes at a grade of 5.67 g/t or 1.78 million ounces of gold. The new estimate came in at the high end of expectations on size and grade. Additionally, over half of the inferred resource is in the high-grade core area of mineralization.
Once sufficient drilling has been completed to upgrade the mineral resource confidence, this higher- grade core of 2.81 million tonnes at a grade of 10.12 g/t or 914,000 ounces, has the potential to drive strong economics by accessing higher than average grades during the early years of a mine plan.
Based on the favourable size and quality of the resource estimate, Dundee will continue to accelerate the project and expects to complete a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) in the second quarter of 2024, targeting a throughput rate of 850,000 tonne annually.
The maiden estimate was completed after only one full year of drilling on the project and is based on approximately 80,723 metres of drilling in 173 holes.
“This initial mineral resource estimate marks a significant milestone for DPM’s [Dundee Precious Metals] future growth and confirms Coka Rakita’s potential as an attractive, high-quality gold project,’’ said President and CEO David Rae. He also described the estimate as a “remarkable achievement.”
The Coka Rakita prospect is located three kilometres southeast of the Bigar Hill sediment-hosted gold deposit and forms part of the Timok Magmatic Complex in eastern Serbia. The surface footprint of the target was delineated by a combination of soil geochemistry, alteration mapping and geophysical signatures. The company said drilling to date has defined a manto-like zone of shallow-dipping gold-rich skarn mineralization located on the contact zone of a carbonaceous sedimentary package of fertile diorite intrusives.
On Monday, Dundee shares eased 2.82% or 27 cents to $9.29. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $10.78 and $6.14.
Dundee is a Canadian-based international gold mining company with operations located in Bulgaria, Namibia, Ecuador and Serbia. The company has said it expects to produce 245,000 to 290,000 ounces of gold and 26 million to 31 million pounds of copper in 2023.
Its operations include the Chelopech underground gold-copper mine in central western Bulgaria, the Ada Tepe open pit gold mine in southern Bulgaria and the development stage Timok gold project in Serbia.
The Tsumeb specialty smelter in Namibia processes concentrates from the Chelopech operation, which produced 44,463 ounces of gold in the third quarter, a 6.0% decrease from the third quarter of 2022. Ada Tepe produced 33,822 ounces of gold in the third quarter, a 62% increase from year ago levels.