State allows Australians to search for gold in Ibar Valley

Australian mining company Bindi Metals Limited has announced that it has received official approval from the Serbian Ministry of Mining and Energy to start the first phase of exploratory drilling at the Ravni gold project in the Ibar Valley.

This is an initial, so-called “maiden” drilling campaign, which will systematically examine what lies below the surface of the terrain for the first time. The project is aimed at exploring potential gold deposits, and the company says that previous geological surveys on the surface have shown the presence of epithermal mineralization - a type of deposit often associated with gold and silver.

The ministry has approved changes to the work program within the existing exploration permit, which allows the company to start drilling, provided that it first signs land access agreements with private plot owners and the competent forest land institutions. Negotiations are reportedly ongoing.

In parallel with the administrative procedures, the company is also launching a two-week geophysical survey using the induced polarization (IP) method, which should identify zones at depth potentially rich in sulfide minerals and quartz veins - structures that often carry gold mineralization. The results of this survey are expected during the next month and will be used to more precisely determine the locations of future wells.

Of particular interest is the re-analysis of the historical well from 2008 at the Drenjak site. Although laboratory analyses were not performed at that time, the core has now been reprocessed and sampled, and the results are expected in the next six to eight weeks. According to preliminary geological observations, the well probably covered only part of a wider system of mineralized veins, which further stimulates interest in further exploration.

In the meantime, the company has also completed the restructuring of its Serbian subsidiary Red Creek d.o.o. Novi Beograd, with which it signed a binding agreement last year to take over the high-quality Ravni gold project in Serbia. Bindi Metals Limited has formalized a controlling interest and management rights in the Serbian company, which retains the exploration permit obtained last September. The permit expires on September 4, 2028 (plus an additional extension period).

In the next few months, the focus will be on completing geophysical surveys, obtaining laboratory analysis results and starting the first phase of drilling. Only after these steps will it be possible to more precisely assess whether there is an economically viable gold deposit in this area.

Ravni is a settlement near the village of Biljanovac, in the Ibar Valley, Raska Municipality, and the gold project, which includes 30.5 km2 of exploration area, is located in the Kopaonik metallogenetic zone and, more broadly, a historical mining district in which several world-famous deposits are located. One of these is the Rogozna mountain, 30 kilometers south of Ravni, where another Australian company, Strickland Metals, is actively searching for gold.

Ravni has previously been explored by various companies including First Quantum Minerals, Tethyan Resources, Euromax and most recently Terra Balcanica, and the exploration yielded incredible results: at the Ceoviste site alone, surface rock samples showed up to 64 grams per ton of gold.

Let us remind that, before the Ravni gold project in Serbia, Bindi Metals also acquired antimony projects in the area of the former “Lisanski rudnici” and in Mutnica, Paracin.

B. P.

RedCreek doo Beograd

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

Bindi Metals Limited

Red Creek doo Novi Beograd

Ministry of Mining and Energy

Drenjak

Ibar Valley

Ravni gold project

permit

gold explorations

maiden drilling