November 9 (SeeNews) - Australian mining group Raiden Resources said that all five holes drilled as part of its maiden campaign at the Stara Planina copper and gold exploration licence in Serbia have turned encouraging results.
The maiden drill programme has provided the company with a valuable insight into the nature of mineralisation, the distribution of sulphide mineralisation throughout the system and the structural framework of the target areas, Raiden said in a statement earlier this week.
"Initial drilling at Aldinac and Gradiste within the Stara Planina project has been encouraging, having intercepted copper and gold mineralisation in all initial holes. The drilling has indicated the presence of controlling shears associated with higher grades and will be the focus of the company’s follow up drill programme," Dusko Ljubojevic, managing director of Raiden, said.
The company is conducting field activities to refine high-grade targets for future drilling, Ljubojevic added.
Initial interpretations derived from recent drilling, historical trenching and outcrop sampling point to a secondary system, which may be associated with the underlying intrusive system and may prove to be the most attractive target for high-grade mineralisation. The company’s technical teams have commenced field activities to define the structural framework of these target zones in detail, Raiden added.
Last week, Raiden said Serbia's energy ministry has extended by three years the Stara Planina copper and gold exploration licence.
Raiden Resources is focused on the emerging prolific Tethyan metallogenic belt in Serbia. The company signed in March an Earn-In and Joint Venture Agreement with Rio Tinto in respect to three of its six projects, whereby Rio Tinto can earn a 75% project-level position in the properties via a staged exploration commitment totalling $31.5 million (27.7 million euro) in three stages at Rio Tinto’s election.
($ = 0.881165 euro)