Toronto-listed Dundee Precious Metals has announced a maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) of 1.78-million ounces for its Čoka Rakita gold project in eastern Serbia, where it made a high-grade discovery in January.
The inferred MRE includes 9.79-million tonnes at a grade of 5.67 g/t gold.
The estimate contains a significant portion of gold ounces within a continuous high-grade core of mineralisation that amounts to 2.81-million tonnes at a grade of 10.12 g/t gold for 0.914-million ounces of gold.
“The initial MRE marks a significant milestone for DPM’s future growth and confirms Čoka Rakita’s potential as an attractive, high-quality gold project,” said president and CEO David Rae.
“Since we announced the initial discovery only 11 months ago, Čoka Rakita has rapidly grown into a 1.8-million-ounce deposit, a remarkable achievement over such a short period of time, and we plan to continue aggressively exploring at Čoka Rakita and the surrounding licences to generate new discoveries.”
Dundee is accelerating the project through its development pipeline, including advancing a preliminary economic assessment (PEA), which is targeted for completion in the second quarter of next year.
The company has already started certain scoping level activities for the PEA, targeting a throughput rate of 850 000 t/y.
“We are excited by Čoka Rakita’s potential in a region where we have had a presence for many years and where we have developed strong relationships with local stakeholders,” said Rae.