TSX: ELD NYSE: EGO
VANCOUVER, Aug. 22, 2016 /CNW/ – Eldorado Gold Corporation, („Eldorado” or „the Company”) is pleased to announce plans at four new exploration projects.
- The large Bolcana porphyry copper-gold system in Romania, recently acquired through public auction, provides a new opportunity contiguous with the Company’s growing land package in the highly prospective Apuseni mining district in Romania.
- The Borborema and Nazareno gold projects in Brazil will be explored under an option agreement with Votorantim Metais. These new projects expand the Brazilian exploration portfolio into two regions with proven metallogenic potential, and establishes a partnership with a highly respected local mining company with a long history of discovery and mine development.
- The Karavansalija Mineralized Centre project in Serbia is a large skarn and epithermal system with multiple mineralized zones and untested targets, and provides an entry into this emerging mining-friendly jurisdiction.
Peter Lewis, Vice President of Exploration at Eldorado, stated: „Our team is excited by the addition of these projects to our exploration portfolio, as they all include defined targets that we plan to drill aggressively for the remainder of 2016, in addition to the outstanding long-term exploration potential on the surrounding license areas.”
Bolcana, Romania
In August 2016 the Romanian National Agency for Mineral Resources awarded the Troita – Pitigus exploration license covering the Bolcana project to Eldorado’s 100% owned Romania subsidiary SC European Goldfields Deva SRL. The Bolcana project is located in the Golden Quadrilateral mining region of the Apuseni Mountains near the historic mining centers of Deva and Brad, and approximately six kilometres west of the Company’s Certej development project. The Troita – Pitigus license area is contiguous with the Company’s existing exploration and mining licenses, bringing Eldorado’s land position in the district to 46 square kilometres.
The project area comprises a central copper-gold porphyry system, flanked by vein-hosted and disseminated epithermal gold deposits and occurrences. The porphyry deposit was explored as a copper prospect by the Romanian state in the 1970s and 1980s. From 2002 to 2004, European Goldfields conducted detailed exploration in the upper 200 metres of the porphyry via drilling and resampling of five levels of underground workings. Key results of the previous exploration work that highlight the potential of the porphyry target include:
- A surface footprint of phyllic and argillic alteration of approximately 2 kilometre by 1 kilometre with localized potassic alteration and stockwork vein networks.
- High copper and gold grades reported in the 2002 drilling program, including an intercept of 208 metres starting from 10 metres downhole grading 0.99 grams per tonne gold and 0.32% copper (see European Goldfields news release dated March 04, 2003).
- A geophysical signature consisting of an 850 metre by 500 metre magnetic anomaly coincident with a high chargability zone.
Distal portions of the Bolcana porphyry and epithermal gold deposits and occurrences on surrounding licenses have historically been explored. Drilling by Eldorado in both 2013 and 2015 on the Certej North exploration license abutting Bolcana to the north intersected porphyry-style mineralization (181 metres at 0.40 grams per tonne gold and 0.25% copper) interpreted as representing the northern edge of the Bolcana porphyry, as well as zones of disseminated epithermal mineralization (76 metres at 0.37 grams per tonne gold).
The Troita – Pitigus exploration license is granted for a period of five years and can be renewed for an additional three years. Within the first year, Eldorado is obligated to complete a work program comprising target delineation work and 24,000 metres of drilling. This drilling will test the Bolcana porphyry deposit over a north-south extent of over a kilometre, with drillhole fences spaced at approximately 100 metres. Drillsite permitting is underway, and drilling is expected later this year.