It’s not every day that a mining company with three projects on one of the most prolific metals belts in Europe starts to trade on the TSX Venture Exchange but that is precisely what Terra Balcanica Resources Corp. is doing at 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 16 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 and the 50-sq.-kilometer Kaludra Pb-Zn-Ag project, both of which are in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The third is the Ceovishte gold property 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 land is well mapped, geologically well-known but under explored in the context of modern techniques,” President and Chief Executive Officer 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.
The claims that comprise Viogor-Zanik basically surround the producing Vares Ag-Au-Pb-Zn mine owned by ASX-listed Adriatic Metals Plc (ADT:ASX; 3FN:FSE).
Vares went from discovery to a mine in roughly four years after securing about $250 million ($250M) in financing in late 2021 — the mine initially operated in the early 1990s before shutting down 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% Zn, 2.6% Pb, 4.1% Zn, and 0.5% copper (Cu). That works out to 56 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.
The template is clearly there for Terra Balcanica to follow.
After the company is officially listed, it is expected to announce a 3,500-meter drill program to further evaluate Viogor-Zanik’s three main targets: Olovine, Chumavichi, and Brezani.
A historical hole on Olovine hit 40 meters grading 1.5% Cu, starting 42 meters downhole, but three large bornite-chalcopyrite-magnetite bodies suggest there is copper mineralization at or near the surface.
Meanwhile, Terra Balcanica management says a historical drill hole at Chumavichi once hit 15 meters grading 17 g/t Au, 12 g/t Ag, 3.22% Zn, and 1.5% Pb. Rock chip samples taken across the property also showed promising grades.
The Brezani target has yet to see any drilling but polymetallic signatures were evident in geochemical work done at surface.
“We hold the only land that has rocks the proper age (to host the kind of economic porphyry deposits found elsewhere along the Tethyan Belt),” Mišković told Streetwise Reports.
Mišković is a Canadian 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. Before that, as head of exploration with Medgold Resources, he led the team that discovered the 680,000-oz. Au-eq Tlamino deposit in Serbia.
Mišković founded the company with Director Aleksandar Ilić, who founded Rockstone Group, a junior Serbian mineral exploration company.
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 $2M in cash with about 73.51 million shares outstanding. Roughly 5% of the company is owned by management.
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