Dundee tallies 1.8M oz gold resource less than a year after Čoka Rakita discovery

Dundee Precious Metals (TSX: DPM) has released its first resource for a discovery it made less than a year ago — its Čoka Rakita project in eastern Serbia.

The initial underground estimate totals nearly 1.8 million inferred oz. of gold in 9.8 million tonnes grading 5.6 grams gold per tonne.

Dundee has drilled over 80,700 metres in 173 holes since it made the discovery in January. It’s now aiming to complete a preliminary economic assessment in the second quarter of 2024.

Čoka Rakita has a higher-grade core that consists of 2.8 million tonnes at 10.12 grams gold for 914,000 oz. The company will continue to drill, but it says the high-grade mineralization could drive strong economics during the early years of potential production.

“The initial resource estimate marks a significant milestone for DPM’s future growth and confirms Čoka Rakita’s potential as an attractive, high-quality gold project,” David Rae, president and CEO of Dundee Precious Metals said in a release.

“Since we announced the initial discovery only 11 months ago, Čoka Rakita has rapidly grown into a 1.8-million-oz. 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.”

The discovery is about 3 km southeast of its advanced Timok gold project in Serbia.

Čoka Rakita remains open to the northeast and southwest. Drilling will concentrate on expanding the limits of the mineralization and on additional skarn targets on the property.

Dundee says it will continue fast-tracking the project. A milling rate of 850,000 tonnes per year is planned. Metallurgical testing has already demonstrated gold recoveries of about 90% by gravity and conventional flotation.

Dundee operates two producing gold mines, Chelopech and Ada Tepe in Bulgaria, plus a copper smelter in Namibia. It also has the Loma Larga gold project in Ecuador. Its shares closed the day up 11¢ or 1.2% to $9.40 each, giving it a market cap of $1.7 billion.