Terra Balcanica Resources [CSE:TERA] has reported encouraging early progress from the latest phase of drilling at its flagship Viogor-Zanik project in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, underscoring the growing appeal of the underexplored Balkans as a source of European metals supply.
The Canada-listed explorer said it has completed the first stage of its 2,100-metre Phase III drill programme, with roughly 1,200 metres of oriented diamond core drilling carried out at the Brezani and Chumavichi targets. The two prospects lie within the company’s 168 sq km polymetallic licence area and are central to its strategy of delineating near-surface, high-grade epithermal mineralisation.
At Brezani, drillholes BRE25001 and BRE25001A were collared 72 metres northeast of the company’s earlier discovery hole, which returned 19.6 metres grading 436 grams per tonne silver equivalent, announced in January 2025. Both new holes intersected broad intervals (approximately 50 to 60 metres) of retrograde-altered skarn, a rock type known to host mineralisation at the project. The intercepts also cut through multiple structural zones carrying intermediate sulphidation epithermal mineralisation.
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These intersections overlap with previously reported mineralised zones, including 0.61 grams per tonne gold equivalent over 88 metres, and lend further support to Terra Balcanica’s geological model. That model envisages a fault-controlled system in which mineralising fluids migrated along a shallowly northeast-dipping conductor before dispersing into favourable host rocks.
Meanwhile, drilling at the Chumavichi target has returned multiple zones of shallow mineralisation. Four drillholes intersected massive sulphide and quartz-sulphide vein-hosted mineralisation within both the hanging wall and footwall of the south-west-dipping Chumavichi structure, all at depths of less than 80 metres. The shallow nature of these intercepts is likely to be welcomed by investors in a market increasingly focused on capital discipline and the economics of potential development.
Assay results remain pending
Across both targets, the mineralisation observed is polymetallic, with indications of silver, antimony, zinc, lead and gold. Sulphide mineralogy and portable X-ray fluorescence analysis have confirmed the presence of these elements, although the market will be watching closely for laboratory assay results, which remain pending. Terra Balcanica said full lithogeochemical data would be released once the complete set of assays has been received.
Chief executive Aleksandar Mišković said the company had made solid progress despite a drilling season that proved longer and more challenging than expected. “We are pleased to have completed over half of the planned metreage despite numerous setbacks and technical challenges,” he said. “More importantly, we are encouraged by the structures and mineralogies observed while logging the core at both Brezani and Chumavichi.”
Mišković added that new three-dimensional data had helped refine the company’s exploration hypothesis at Brezani, particularly the potential extension of base-metal-dominated epithermal mineralisation above the interpreted fault-hosted fluid conduit. Further drillholes are planned to test a prominent silver–antimony–zinc–arsenic–bismuth soil anomaly, while step-out drilling at Chumavichi will continue towards the north-west.
Phase III drilling is expected to resume in January 2026, once assay results have been released. For Terra Balcanica, the early-stage results offer a measure of validation at a time when Europe is reassessing its domestic metals potential, and when investors are increasingly selective about which exploration stories deserve fresh capital.
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