With a mining history tracing back to Roman times, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s resource development interests have had as many ups and downs as its volatile political background.
In a region that many associate more with land mines left over from recent military conflicts than significant mining activities, the hunt for mineral riches is stepping up after a lengthy period of relative peace.
Thanks to the rekindling of two “zombie” mines and some recent exploration success using modern technology and ideas, new precious metal and critical minerals opportunities could help the Balkan nation’s mining sector rise again.
Leading the way in bringing new life to a historic mining operation is UK-based Adriatic Metals (ASX: ADT), which is focused on developing the Vares silver project. The project is located in an area which has a mining history tracing back to the Saxons and was most recently in operation in 1988.
Made up of two polymetallic deposits at Rupice and Veovaca, the Vares silver project is on target to return from the dead in early 2023, according to managing director and CEO, Paul Cronin.
“The project remains on track for production in Q2 2023, and despite witnessing areas of cost inflation it has not impacted on the overall project budget nor the project development timeline.
“In any case, the company is sitting in a robust funding situation with US$101 million of cash on hand, as well as a further US$142.5 million of currently undrawn debt from Orion. In addition, we have continued to make key appointments to build out the project’s in-house technical capability,” he said.
Construction underway
The start-up of construction of the lower decline earlier this year marked the start of the three phases of mining at Rupice. The first phase is the concurrent construction of the two declines from the upper and the lower portal, down to the two parallel production levels of the Rupice orebody. The first phase is expected to be completed during Q4 2022.
Phase two of mining will start at the beginning of Q1 2023, with the construction of the production levels, cross cuts, ore development drives, and installation of underground infrastructure ready for production mining.
Phase two will be when the majority of the underground equipment mining fleet is mobilized, as there will be the multiple simultaneous headings under development. There will be just two concurrent development headings in phase one.
The final and third phase of mining, will be production mining in ore as well as backfilling. This is expected to commence in Q2 2023. Phase three will also have additional underground mobilized, albeit in smaller incremental increase than that for phase two.
Offtakes signed
Earlier this year Adriatic Metals announced it had agreed heads of terms (HoT) with four international commodities trading and smelting companies for the purchase of concentrate production from Vares.
The off-takers have been allocated 82% of the total projected concentrate production over the first 24 months. The remaining 18% of concentrate production not included under the HoT, has been intentionally allocated for either advantageous spot market sales or into additional long-term offtake agreements to be agreed at a later date.
Mr Cronin says the high degree of interest received for the Vares silver project’s concentrate confirms their marketability and underpins the exceptional financial performance of the project.
Lykos project
ASX-listed Lykos Resources (ASX: LYK) continues to have drilling success in its build-up to revitalizing its Bosnia and Herzegovina assets, in particular the Sinjakovo project.
Historical mining within the Sinjakovo licence targeted the copper-iron mineralization hosted in siderite layers within the carboniferous sediments and ceased in the early 1900s. Subsequent exploration has confirmed the presence of the copper and iron mineralization at various localities along the exposed strike of the outcropping siderite layers.
Lykos has formulated a two-year technical work programme to include a systematic groundwork programme, geophysical surveys, and drilling.
In late June 2022, Lykos reported a significant exploration update on its activities at the Sinjakovo Project.
At the RDK copper cobalt prospect, the first ever modern exploration drillhole in the licence area intersected the interpreted lithological sequence which hosts the nearby high grade historical copper mine at a downhole depth of 22.5m. This was shallower than expected and in an oxide zone which suggests a ~100m reverse fault between the drilling area and historic mine area. The hole also intersected a sulphidic volcano-sedimentary complex at depth.
Elsewhere, a trenching programme at the Zekil-Erak prospect targeting a gold-in-soil anomaly has commenced. About 2km of total trenching is planned at the Zekil area and is expected to commence in August.
Managing director, Mladen Stevanovic, said exceptional recent surface results support an ongoing focus on this prospect and, subject to trenching results, drilling is planned to commence toward the end of the calendar year.
“Our systematic exploration programmes across the entire Sinjakovo project area is progressing exceptionally well. At every location we are uncovering evidence of extensive mineralization events, with surface samples already returning high grade copper, gold, silver, cobalt, zinc, lead, and antimony.
“The newly-discovered mineralized zones are adding to our already significant exploration prospect pipeline and our geologists are very excited to continue their work in unravelling the geological story of the area.
“At the RDK prospect, we have successfully completed SIDD001 – the first ever modern exploration drillhole at Sinjakovo. All the indications are that the drillhole has intercepted the historic high-grade copper mine lithological horizon, albeit at a much shallower depth than was expected. An offset fault has long been suspected and SIDD001 suggests that the mineralized horizon could be shallower than anticipated and possibly even subject to repetitions at depth.
“Trenching at the Zekil-Erak prospect is targeting a gold-in-soil anomaly to follow up the outstanding polymetallic mineralization identified in the soil and rock chip sampling programmes. We look forward to a potential drilling programme at Zekil-Erak, subject to results.
“An initial 2,594-sample, project-wide soil sampling programme is now complete. As we continue to receive results, more exciting exploration prospects are emerging. We are delighted by the discovery of the Kovacevac, Prisoje, and Krajevi prospects,” said Mr Stevanovic.
Bosnia and Herzegovina shares a land border with, and is an accession state to, the European Union, making it particularly attractive to companies hunting critical minerals to fuel the region’s booming electric vehicle market.
The area boasts a rich mining history, a pro-mining environment, a highly skilled workforce, and extensive existing infrastructure.
