Chinese keep buying in Serbia – Zijin spends USD 5 million on gold project on Rogozna, entering ownership of Australian Strickland

After the recent information that the Chinese company Zijin Mining is the new owner of the Hotel Falkensteiner in Belgrade, the news has arrived that this mining giant has also bought a share in the Rogozna gold project near Novi Pazar. Strickland Metals share price surged 21 per cent higher to 11 cents after the company received USD 5 million in cash through strategic private placement in the gold and copper project on the Serbian mountain of Rogozna that the Australian company bought last year. The new funding has armed the Australian explorer with a beefed-up war chest to fast-track the company’s most aggressive drilling assault to date at Rogozna and as it works towards building its gold inventory at the project’s red-hot Gradina deposit, as reported by foreign media specialized in the mining sector. When the deal settles Zijin will emerge with a 2.4 per cent stake in Strickland through a non-brokered placement of more than 54.9 million shares at 9.1 cents each. As experts note, Stickland Metals has attracted financial support from one of the world’s biggest mining groups for its plans to accelerate the development of the Rogozna project of gold and base metals in Serbia, and this transaction also says a lot about the future constellation of powers in Serbian mining, considering that Zijin is the main player in that sector in Serbia, where it currently runs the Bor and Cukaru Peki copper and gold mines, with resources of 34 million tons of copper and 822 tons of gold.

The Australian Sydney Morning Herald writes that, last year alone, Zijin churned out 300,000 tons of copper and more than 7 tons of gold in Serbia.

The news of this financial support comes only a few days after Strickland announced that it had brought in a sixth drill rig to Rogozna within the program which aims to expand the Gradina site, and the explorations have so far identified several high-quality gold sites at this prospect.

– Their investment is a strong endorsement of the quality of the 7.4M-ounce AuEq1 Rogozna project in Serbia and the significant progress being made towards our goal of developing a world-class gold-copper operation. The significant benefits of bringing Zijin onto the Strickland share register far outweigh the small dilutionary impact of this strategic placement – said Strickland Metals managing director Paul L’Herpiniere.

B. P.

Serbia Zijin Mining d.o.o. Bor

Strickland Metals

Zijin Mining

Strickland Metals

Rogozna

Gradina gold site

gold project on Rogozna

acquisition

investment