The Timok ,Cukaru Peki, Lower Zone deposit contains 31.5-billion pounds of copper and 9.6-million ounces of gold, TSX-listed Nevsun Resources said on Tuesday, announcing an initial resource estimate for the project in Serbia.
The Timok Lower Zone – a joint venture with Freeport-McMoRan – has a porphyry copper inferred mineral resource of 1.7-billion tonnes, grading 0.86% copper and 0.18 g/t gold (0.96% copper equivalent).
Nevsun CEO Peter Kukielski said that the Timok Lower Zone ranked high among world porphyry deposits by tonnage and by grade. With 1.1-billion tonnes grading 1.11% copper equivalent, the Timok Lower Zone benchmarks well against planned and operating block cave mines, he added.
“We expect that Timok (Cukaru Peki) is the start of a new generation of mines in Serbia’s Bor region. The Lower Zone remains open to the north and at depth. There are multiple high grade Upper Zone style exploration targets above the Lower Zone and our exploration licences have the potential to host entirely new porphyry systems with associated high grade Upper Zone style mineralisation,” Kukielski said.
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The Lower Zone at Timok consists of two distinct mineralisation styles: a typical porphyry copper style mineralisation characterised by potassic alteration and chalcopyrite with elevated molybdenum, and second a high sulphidation style mineralisation consisting of sericitic alteration with elevated arsenic and base metals (lead, zinc and bismuth). The porphyry copper mineralisation is the most important volumetrically at more than 95% of the volume at the lower cutoff.
The mineralised envelope extends above the Upper Zone on the east side with elevations ranging from about 500 m below the surface to just over 2 200 m below the surface.
Source: miningweekly
