BHP-Funded Drilling to Target Untested Core of Mundoro’s Central Timok Copper-Gold System in Serbia
Key Takeaways
- •Mundoro Capital plans to target the untested core of a copper-gold porphyry system at its Central Timok property in Serbia using BHP-funded drilling after initial holes at Skorusa East intersected alteration on the system's outer margin.
- •BHP can earn full ownership of the 418-sq.-km Central Timok property by spending $35 million over 10 years, with Mundoro retaining a 2% net smelter return royalty and receiving annual payments and operator fees.
- •The Central Timok property is located in Serbia's Timok district within the Tethyan metal belt, a mineral-rich corridor that hosts some of the world's largest copper-gold porphyry deposits.
- •BHP has optioned three additional Mundoro properties around the Bor and Majdanpek mining areas, providing multiple exploration targets across the district.
- •The partnership reflects a broader trend of major mining companies collaborating with junior explorers to secure future copper supply as demand grows from electrification and energy-transition infrastructure.
Mundoro Capital (TSXV: MUN; US-OTC: MUNMF) plans to direct BHP-funded drilling toward the untested core of a copper-gold porphyry system at its Central Timok property in Serbia.
The 418-sq.-km property is located near Majdanpek in the Timok district, about 120 km southeast of Belgrade. The Timok district sits within the broader Tethyan metal belt, a mineral-rich corridor extending from southeastern Europe through Turkey and into Central Asia that hosts some of the world's largest copper-gold porphyry deposits. The district includes the Bor and Majdanpek mining areas, which have produced copper for over a century and continue to attract major investment, including Zijin Mining's acquisition and modernization of the RTB Bor mining complex.
Mundoro said two holes drilled at Skorusa East, totalling nearly 1,300 metres, intersected alteration on the outer western margin of the system. The next drilling campaign is expected to move closer to the area the company believes may host mineralization.
"The next round of drilling will actually get us closer to what we believe is the mineralization," Mundoro President and CEO Teo Dechev told The Northern Miner's Western Editor, Henry Lazenby, this month at the Rule Symposium on Resource Investing in Boca Raton, Fla.
Under the arrangement, BHP (NYSE, LSE, ASX: BHP) can earn full ownership of Central Timok by spending $35 million (C$49.4 million) over 10 years. Mundoro would retain a 2% net smelter return royalty and receive annual payments and operator fees. The deal reflects a broader pattern among major mining companies seeking to secure future copper supply through partnerships with junior explorers, as copper demand grows with electrification and energy-transition infrastructure.
BHP has also optioned three other Mundoro properties around Bor and Majdanpek, giving the companies multiple exploration targets in the district. The structure allows Mundoro, as a junior company, to remain operator and retain a royalty, while BHP funds the exploration spending and assumes the associated cost and risk.
The comments were made during an interview at the Rule Symposium on Resource Investing. Watch the full interview below: