Western Tethyan Resources granted exploration licences in Kosovo

Highlights

• Three contiguous exploration licenses recently granted by the ICMM, covering a total of 239 km2 and located in the vicinity of the Stanterg Mine, historically the largest Pb-Zn mine in Europe.
• Cecelia, Popovo and Lluzhan projects are located along a significant NW-SE trending structural contact, which juxtaposes metasedimentary rocks against prospective Oligocene to Miocene-aged magmatic rocks of the Trepca Mineral Belt.
• WTR is currently completing a comprehensive pXRF soil-sampling programme across all licences on a 250 x 500 m grid.
• Historical and the initial reconnaissance work on the projects conducted by WTR, although limited, returned several significant results throughout the licenses:
  • Stream-sediment sampling up to 10 g/t gold (Au).
  • Boulder sampling up to 19.55 g/t Au and 684 g/t silver (Ag).

Dr Kerim Sener, Managing Director, Ariana Resources, commented: “This is an excellent result for Western Tethyan, just as it commences a very active period of exploration in Kosovo and in the wider region, particularly after having entered into a strategic relationship with Newmont Corp. just last month. Securing the first three of six licence applications in Kosovo at the start of the field season could not have come at a better time. These initial licences all show evidence of gold, silver and base-metal mineralisation from historical sampling and are located in the proximity of the Stanterg Mine, which contains a resource of 31 million t at 76 g/t Ag, 7% lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) (gold data not available).

“The Western Tethyan team are now initiating further exploration work on this granted tenure, to better define the nature of the mineral systems and to identify locations for initial drill-testing. We are aiming to advance these projects rapidly to the drilling stage within their first year. In the meantime, a number of other project opportunities are being actively assessed within Kosovo and in the wider south-eastern European region. We look forward to providing further updates on these developments in due course.”

Mentor Demi, Managing Director of Western Tethyan Resources Ltd, added: “We are delighted to share the news on the issuance of three exploration licences in Kosovo. The three licenses combined lie on the highly prospective northwest-southeast trending Trepca Belt, host of world class projects, such as Stanterg Mine. We look forward to exploring and developing another potential world class project from within our licenses.”

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/exploration-development/28042022/western-tethyan-resources-granted-exploration-licences-in-kosovo/