Alaska-like quantities of gold near Priboj – Australians find it where no one was looking, deposited in rocks for millennia

The Zabrnjica area, part of the Priboj project in southwestern Serbia, has not been the subject of modern gold exploration until now, but Australian mining company Middle Island Resources Limited announced that it has identified a potentially significant zone of gold mineralization.

Analysis of 146 soil samples and additional rock samples revealed a gold anomaly zone about 600 meters long and up to 200 meters wide, with concentrations of up to 10 ppb in the soil and up to 1.91 grams per ton in rock samples. The geological conditions resemble large “replacement-style” gold systems, similar to the famous Donlin Creek deposit in Alaska, which contains multi-million-dollar quantities of gold and is considered one of the largest in the world.

The gold in such systems comes from deep, hot solutions that flowed through the rocks and chemically deposited the gold within the rocks over millennia – almost as if the gold was “poured” into the rocks, molecularly dissolved in a solution of metal and water.

CEO Peter Spiers emphasized that the results confirm the potential of a previously unexplored area and define a new attractive target for drilling. An initial drilling program of five wells is planned for the 2026 field season.

In parallel, the company continues copper exploration as part of a broader project around Priboj, where elevated concentrations of this metal were already recorded in soil samples in January.

Let us remind that in the fall, Australian Middle Island Resources, by taking over the company Konstantin Resources, also from Australia, became the owner of 14 licenses for mineral exploration in Serbia, on as much as 62,000 hectares, which is more than any other company has in our country.

The permits cover three main project areas – Bobija, Priboj and Timok – which are primarily focused on gold and copper, but also on silver, lead and zinc.

The company had already started drilling at Bobija late last year, where the best sections showed zones with around 1 to 3 grams of gold per ton of ore.

In February, in the Tisovik area, a former lead and zinc mine between the Medvednik and Bobija mountains, the latest test drilling showed widespread silver anomalies.

B. P.

Middle Island Resources

Zabrnjica near Priboj

Donlin Creek gold site in Alaska

Peter Spiers

Priboj ore exploration project

gold

gold exploration

replacement style gold systems