Western Tethyan Resources (WTR), which is 75%-owned by Ariana Resources PLC (AIM:AAU), has been granted a further exploration license in Kosovo.
WTR has three other license applications in Kosovo awaiting final approval from the Independent Commission for Mines and Minerals.
The Hertica exploration license covers 58 square kilometres and lies in the north-eastern part of Kosovo in a highly-prospective area.
The project area contains a large six kilometre square zone of advanced argillic alteration, with several quartz-diorite porphyry intrusions containing associated copper, gold and antimony mineralisation.
Reconnaissance work has returned several highly anomalous gold-bearing samples across several different alteration styles of the epithermal-porphyry target, including up to 0.4 grams per tonne gold and 0.5% copper from a quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration zone, and up to 0.12 grams gold from the vughy silica samples.
WTR has immediately commenced formal exploration work, which will include a license-wide pXRF soil sampling programme.
West Tethyan now holds 297 square kilometres of highly-prospective ground under licence in Kosovo, with a further 161 square kilometres under application.
"The addition of the highly-prospective Hertica project to the Western Tethyan portfolio is an important step in the development of our exploration pipeline in Kosovo,” said Dr. Kerim Sener, managing director of Ariana Resources.
“This comes at a time when exploration activities in the country are gearing up, through our partnership with Newmont Corporation. We are excited about the latest progress in Kosovo and the wider south-eastern European region, with multiple projects and target areas already defined. The region is host to several multi-million-ounce gold and copper deposits, yet remains relatively under-explored.”