Dundee Precious Metals Announces High-Grade Underground Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate of 1.8 Million Inferred Gold Ounces at its Čoka Rakita Project in Serbia
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Dundee Precious Metals Announces High-Grade Underground Maiden
Mineral Resource Estimate of 1.8 Million Inferred Gold Ounces
at its Čoka Rakita Project in Serbia
Toronto, December 11, 2023 – Dundee Precious Metals Inc. (TSX: DPM) (“DPM” or “the Company”)
is pleased to announce a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate of 1.78 million ounces for its 100% owned
Čoka Rakita gold project in eastern Serbia, where DPM announced a high-grade discovery in January
2023.
Highlights
• Strong maiden Mineral Resource estimate: Inferred Mineral Resource estimate (“MRE”) of 9.79
million tonnes (“Mt”) at a grade of 5.67 grams per tonne (“g/t”) for 1.78 million ounces of gold. The
maiden MRE was completed after only one full year of drilling on the project and is based on
approximately 80,723 metres of drilling in 173 holes.
• Higher-grade core of mineralization: The MRE contains a significant portion of gold ounces within
a continuous high-grade core of mineralization that amounts to 2.81 Mt at a grade of 10.12 g/t Au for
0.914 million ounces of gold . Once sufficient drilling has been completed to upgrade the Mineral
Resource confidence, this higher -grade core has the potential to drive strong economics by
accessing higher than average grades during the early years of a mine plan.
• Upside exploration potential: DPM is continuing its drilling program focused on extending the limits
of Čoka Rakita, which remains open to the northeast and to the southwest, and is also aggressively
pursuing additional skarn targets on the Čoka Rakita licence as well as on three additional licences
to the north and the south.
• Advancing to a preliminary economic assessment (“PEA”) : Based on the favourable size and
quality of the MRE, DPM will continue to accelerate the project and expects to complete a PEA on
the project in the second quarter of 2024, targeting a throughput rate of 850,000 tonnes per annum.
• Attractive organic growth opportunity: Čoka Rakita benefits from good infrastructure , including
nearby existing roads and power lines. The project is located in close regional proximity to DPM’s
existing operations in Bulgaria and is a strong fit with the Company’s underground mining and
processing expertise, with metallurgical test work demonstrating gold recoveries of approximately
90% by gravity concentration and conventional flotation.
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“The initial Mineral Resource estimate marks a significant milestone for DPM’s future growth and
confirms Čoka Rakita’s potential as an attractive, high-quality gold project,” said David Rae, President
and Chief Executive Officer of Dundee Precious Metals.
“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 licen ces to generate new
discoveries.
“We are continuing to accelerat e the project through our development pipeline, including a dvancing a
PEA which is targeted for completion in the second quarter of 2024. 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.”
Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate
The Inferred MRE is comprised of 1.78 million ounces of gold contained within 9.79 million tonnes
grading 5.67 g/t Au (Table 1) and assumes an underground mining scenario.
Gold-rich skarn mineralization is hosted within carbonate rich sandstones and conglomerates, located
on the hanging wall of a sill -like body and abutting a monzonite intrusive body to the west . The
mineralization forms a shallow-dipping tabular mineralized body located between 250 and 450 metres
below surface, measuring 650 metres long, up to 350 metres wide, and with variable thickness from
less than 20 metres in the margins to more than 100 metres in the core of the mineralized zone. Coarse
gold is often observed in areas of intense retrograde skarn al ternation and is found mainly in proximity
to syn-mineral diorites within the higher-grade core of the deposit. The current MRE has been conducted
on the portion of the prospect where gold-rich skarn mineralization occurs.
The drillhole database was handed over as of November 16, 2023. A total of 173 drill holes totalling
80,723 metres were included in the estimation of the Mineral Resource . The current drillhole spacing
within the mineralized domains is approximately 30 metres by 30 metres in the core of the system, with
an up to 60 -metre by 60 -metre grid on the periphery. Gold grades within skarn domains have been
determined systematically using a screen fire assaying technique, which is preferred for mineralization
with coarse gold. Grade capping was applied to composites to limit the influence of anomalously high -
grade values.
Mineral resource domains were created within volumes of moderate to intense skarn alteration and
guided by economic composites at a 1 g/t Au cut-off value. Detailed lithology and structural models were
developed and used to constrain domain extents, as well as to incorporate post -mineralization diorite
sills which cut across the mineralization. Block grade estimates have been undertaken for Au, Ag, Cu,
S and As using ordinary kriging at a 10mE x 10mN x 10mZ parent block size with sub-celling to honour
domain volumes.
A break-even cut-off value of 2 g/t Au and a minimum width constraint of 5 metres by 5 metres by 2.5
metres was used to define optimized mineable shapes using Datamine’s Mineable Shape Optimiser
(“MSO”). These shapes were subsequently smoothed and used to constrain continuous zones of
mineralization for reporting the final Mineral Resource statement.
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The application of MSO shapes at the MRE stage provides a robust estimate for the purposes of a PEA,
and a higher confidence in the potential for the conversion of Mineral Resources into mineable tonnes
and grades for the purposes of a mine plan for the PEA. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral
Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The MSO shapes have been used to ensure
Mineral Resources demonstrate reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction.
Material within the reporting MSO constraints (smoothed) was classified as Inferred Mineral Resources
according to Mineral Resource confidence categories defined in the CIM Definition Standards for
Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves. Data quality and quantity, geological and grade continuity,
and confidence in the grade, density and reasonable prospects for eventual economi c extraction
(“RPEEE”) criteria were considered when classifying the MRE. Given the relatively continuous and
stratified mineralization style at Čoka Rakita, the Company has reason to expect that the majority of
Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with infill drilling.
Table 1: Čoka Rakita Mineral Resource Estimate
Čoka Rakita Mineral Resource Estimate
(Effective date November 16, 2023)
Resource Category Tonnes
(Mt)
Gold Grade
(g/t)
Contained Gold
(K oz.)
Silver grade
(g/t)
Contained silver
(K oz.)
Inferred 9.79 5.67 1,783 1.21 382
Total 9.79 5.67 1,783 1.21 382
1) The cut-off value of 2 g/t assumes $1,700 gold price, 90% gold recovery, US$79/t operating cost, US$7/t sustaining capital cost, as well as
offsite and royalty costs.
2) Mineral Resources are reported within smoothed MSO shapes generated at a 2 g/t Au cutoff, to ensure Mineral Resources meet reasonable
prospects for eventual economic extraction. The smoothing process allows for blocks below the cut-off to included within the final shapes in
order to emulate the internal dilution that would be experienced during underground mining as per CIM Estimation of Mineral Resources and
Mineral Reserves Best Practices Guidelines prepared by the CIM Mineral Resource & Mineral Reserve Committee and adopted by th e CIM
Council on November 29, 2019.
3) CSA Global are not aware of any legal, political, environmental , or other risk factors that might materially affect the estimate of Mineral
Resources.
Higher-Grade Core of Mineralization
Within the core of the Čoka Rakita deposit is a zone of continuous higher -grade mineralization hosted
within intense retrograde skarn alteration. By digitizing an outline of spatially contiguous blocks within
the Mineral Resource that have an estimated grade value higher than approximately 5 g/t Au and
including internal dilution, the block model reports 2.81 Mt at a grade of 10.12 g/t Au for 0.914 million
ounces of gold. Once sufficient drilling has been completed to upgrade the Mineral Resource
confidence, this higher-grade core has the potential to drive strong economics by accessing higher than
average grades during the early years of a mine plan.
When reported within the smoothed MSO constraints used to report the MRE, the block model sensitivity
to cut-off grade is shown in Table 2. This table does not constitute a Mineral Resource statement and
is shown to illustrate the grade and tonnage sensitivity to grade cut-off value.
Due to the presence of coarse gold and the confidence level of Inferred Mineral Resources, there is
inherent uncertainty in the level of mining selectivity that can be achieved as the cut -off grade is
increased. Further drilling , and potentially bulk sampling , is required to asses s the short-range grade
continuity of the higher-grade mineralization.
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Table 2: Čoka Rakita Mineral Resource Grade Tonnage Sensitivity Tabulation
Čoka Rakita Inferred Mineral Resource Grade Tonnage Sensitivity
Cut-off
(g/t)
Tonnes
(Mt)
Gold Grade
(g/t)
Contained Gold
(Moz.)
0 9.79 5.67 1.78
1 9.51 5.81 1.78
2 8.55 6.28 1.73
3 6.42 7.54 1.56
4 4.55 9.22 1.35
5 3.46 10.72 1.19
6 2.76 12.02 1.07
7 2.26 13.28 0.97
8 1.86 14.55 0.87
9 1.56 15.72 0.79
10 1.32 16.85 0.71
1) Mineral Resources are reported within smoothed MSO shapes generated at a 2 g/t Au cut-off, to ensure the mineral resources meet
reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction. All blocks that fall within that constraint are reported within the MRE. Accordingly, the
cut-off value of 0 g/t corresponds to the MRE statement.
Exploration Potential
DPM is planning an aggressive exploration program for 2024 including:
• Approximately 3 0,000 metres of infill, hydrological and geotechnical drilling, with the goal of re -
classifying the current Mineral Resource to the Indicated Mineral Resource category. This also
includes infill drilling to test the extents of Čoka Rakita, which remains open to the northeast and to
southwest; and
• 55,000 metres of additional exploration drilling at existing skarn targets and to test for manto -like
copper-gold skarn identified across four licences held by DPM, including Čoka Rakita, Potaj Čuka,
Pešter Jug, and Umka.
Exploration and evaluation expenditures for the above drilling programs, PEA and related technical work
is expected to be US$30 to US$35 million in 2024, which will be updated in early Q1 2024 as part of the
Company’s detailed 2024 guidance and updated three-year outlook.
Attractive Organic Growth Opportunity
With a sizeable maiden MRE and significant additional exploration potential, Čoka Rakita is an attractive
organic growth opportunity that DPM will be prioritizing for advancement.
The project is located approximately 35 kilometres from the city of Bor in Serbia, is proximal to existing
roads and power lines and is approximately 320 kilometres northwest of DPM’s Chelopech mine in
Bulgaria which will allow easy access to existing technical support functions. The project is a strong fit
with the Company’s underground mining and processing expertise , with metallurgical testwork
demonstrating gold recoveries of approximately 90% by gravity concentration and conventional flotation.
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As p reviously reported on November 15, 2023, metallurgical testwork confirmed the viability of a
combined gravity concentration and flotation circuit at different target grades (Table 3).
Table 3: Summarized Metallurgical Test Results
METCRA23-01 METCRA23-02 METCRA23-03
Feed grade (g/t) 3.12 5.3 10.4
EGRG recovery (%) 55.6 49 61.8
Gravity + flotation recovery (%) 87.5 88.5 91.2
Bond ball mill work index (kWh/t) 13.4 13.2 13.3
Abrasion Index 0.123 0.138 0.154
Next Steps
In parallel to its exploration and infill drilling activities, DPM has advanced activities to accelerate the
project, including initiating geotechnical and hydrogeological drilling, the next phase of metallurgical
testwork, evaluating locations for potential site infrastructure , as well as stakeholder engagement and
permitting activities.
The Company has already commenced certain scoping level activities and expects to complete a PEA
on the project in the second quarter of 2024, targeting a throughput rate of 850,000 tonnes per annum.
The next phase of metallurgical testwork will focus on the variability at Čoka Rakita to ascertain the
metallurgical and comminution performance of the different subtypes of mineralization present, including
testing on more copper-rich areas of the prospect.
Permitting preparation activities are underway, with good suppo rt and engagement from key regional
and national authorities.
Stakeholder Engagement
Consistent with its approach across all operations and projects, DPM seeks to build and maintain strong
partnerships with local communities and governments. The Company has had a local presence in Serbia
since 2004 and has developed strong relationships in the region and will continue to proactively engage
with all stakeholders as the project advances.
Planning for the project will be highly focused on ensuring responsible environmental management and
social development in-line with industry best practices. DPM is committed to working closely with local
communities around the Čoka Rakita project to understand and support local development
opportunities, with a focus on maximizing benefits of the project for Serbia.
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Figure 1. Cross section through the block model of Čoka Rakita, showing blocks coloured by Au
g/t. Section line 4895859mN with 30 metre window clipping, looking north.
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Figure 2. Tilted slice along high-grade skarn mineralization displaying new drilling intercepts and the
ongoing infill drilling at Čoka Rakita.
View the interactive 3D model on VRIFY, which will provide a more accurate representation of the
spatial position of the drillholes, available at: https://vrify.com/decks/14641
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Figure 3. Overview map of Čoka Rakita exploration licence outlining the progress of the scout drilling
campaign, including ongoing holes.