It is not every day that a mining company with three projects in one of the most prolific metals belts in Europe starts to trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange, but that is precisely what Terra Balcanica Resources Corp. is doing as it starts trading today under the symbol TERA, at a per share price of CA$0.20.
Before going public, Terra Balcanica spent the previous 21 months as a private entity outlining potential polymetallic deposits across the Balkan Peninsula.
That work ultimately culminated in three assets being added to the fold: the 217-sq.-kilometer Viogor-Zanik copper (Cu)-lead (Pb)-zinc (Zn)-silver (Ag)-gold (Au) project in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the 50-sq.-kilometer Kaludra Pb-Zn-Ag project and the Ceovishte gold property, both of which are in neighboring Serbia.
These are small, emerging countries that have seen little modern exploration, despite centuries of artisanal mining in that part of the world.
”What's beautiful about it is that the region is well mapped, geologically understood but hugely under-explored in the context of modern techniques,” President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Aleksandar Mišković told Streetwise Reports.
Viogor-Zanik is Terra Balcanica’s flagship project at the western end of the Tethyan Metallogenic Belt, which stretches all the way to Iran. The belt is known for some sizeable epithermal and porphyry deposits, like Eldorado Gold Corp.'s (ELD:TSX; EGO:NYSE) Kişladağ gold mine in Turkey, Dundee Precious Metals Inc.'s (DPM:TSX)' Chelopech gold-silver mine in Bulgaria, and Zijin Mining Group Co. Ltd.'s Chukaru Peki copper-gold mine in the Timok district of eastern Serbia.
The claims that comprise Viogor-Zanik basically surround the producing Sase Ag-Pb-Zn mine, one of many regional mines owned by U.K.-based Mineco Ltd.
Adding to the story is the recent success of ASX-listed Adriatic Metals Plc, whose Vares mine went from discovery to production in roughly four years after securing about $250 million ($250M) in financing in late 2021 — the adjacent mine operated in the 1980s before shutting down in the early 1990s, but that sort of timeline to production is almost unheard of in North America.
As of August 2020, the Rupice deposit at Vares hosted a JORC-compliant (Australia’s version of National Instrument 43-101, only more demanding) resource of 12 million tonnes containing 149 grams per tonne Ag (65 g/t Ag), 1.4 g/t gold (Au), 4.1% zinc (Zn), 2.6% lead (Pb), and 0.5% copper (Cu). That works out to 58 million oz Ag, 488,000 tonnes Zn, 312,000 tonnes Pb, 526,000 oz gold, 56,000 tonnes Cu. The deposit also contains antimony and barium sulphate.
Adriatic is also advancing a zinc project next door in Serbia that is not far from Terra Balcanica's Serbian land package.
The template may be there for Terra Balcanica to follow.
After the company is officially listed, it is expected to announce a two-stage, 3,500-meter drill program to further evaluate Viogor-Zanik’s three main targets: Olovine, Chumavichi, and Brezani.
A shallow historical hole drilled by a Yugoslavian outfit on Olovine reportedly hit 7 meters grading 1.5% Cu, starting 42 meters downhole. Three large bornite-chalcopyrite-magnetite bodies detected less than 1 kilometer south by Terra Balcanica geologists corroborate the historical drill result and suggest there is copper mineralization near the surface.
Elsewhere, Terra Balcanica management says a historical drill hole (one of a handful) at Chumavichi once hit 5.6 meters grading 90 g/t Ag, 12 g/t Ag, 4% Zn, and 1.4% Pb. Hundreds of rock chip samples and more than 1,800 soil samples taken across the property also showed promising grades.
The Brezani target is slated to see drilling soon. Terra Balcanica geologists are encouraged by polymetallic signatures — typically indicative of a large-scale hydrothermal system — that were evident in surface geochemical work that overlaps a mile-wide conductivity and magnetic anomaly imaged by the junior explorer.
“We hold the only land in Bosnia and Herzegovina that has rocks of the prospective age and chemistry (to host the kind of economic porphyry and epithermal deposits found elsewhere along the Tethyan Belt),” Mišković told Streetwise Reports.
Dr. Mišković is a Canadian geologist who was Rio Tinto Plc's (RIO:NYSE; RIO:ASX; RIO:LSE; RTPPF:OTCPK) global research and development director before leaving to start his own company in 2020. Before that, as the country manager with Medgold Resources Corp., he led the team that discovered the 680,000-oz. Au-eq Tlamino deposit in southeastern Serbia.
Dr. Mišković founded the company with Director Aleksandar Ilić, owner of the Rockstone Group, a Serbian mineral project generator.
Ilić is joined by Non-Executive Chairman Giulio Bonifacio and Director Brandon Bonifacio, who would be familiar to Streetwise Reports readers who follow NevGold Corp. (NAU:TSX.V; NAUFF:OTC; 5E50:FSE), a junior gold explorer with four gold projects, two in Nevada, one in British Columbia, and now the 1.1-Moz Nutmeg deposit in Idaho.
Kim Oishi, who has proven capital markets experience, is the fourth board member.
Terra Balcanica has around $1M in cash with about 73.51 million shares outstanding. Roughly 42% of the company is owned by management.
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