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The sun is shining is Vares, hard not to be pleased with the recent met results from $ADT and by the wording in the announcement still room for improvements. 
First thing that stood out - how good infrast in the area is. Roads to town from Sarajevo are good, 1 hour drive from Sarajevo. Train line goes all the way through town linking to port in Croatia and is currently in use for coal/forestry. Very minor upgrades may be required
There is power running right beside the old Veovaca site where the plant is proposed to be located. Veovaca was a 3MTPA operation back in the day (IIRC) so what will be needed for $ADT ~1mtpa with current resources (or bigger if more exploration success) will be easily satisfied
Ropeways have been used in the area in the past to good effect but not likely to be required. Some road upgrades and some new roads might be the most economic option. Labour is cheap in Bosnia, there is a skilled workforce and long term employment is sought after by the locals.
Further exploration success might make ropeways more relevant, it’s just a matter of if it makes financial sense or not so is an option that is being considered in the background.
When looking at capex/opex + requirements of other projects $US150-200m, I struggle to see how this project will need that sort of capital given the infrast in place and the cost of labour. This will be a low cost mine in the scheme of things, ~$100m??
$ADT has set up offices in town (along with at site in Veovaca) for anybody with queries to make them heard. Engagement at all levels, local, provincial, national and universities ongoing at all times to ensure everyone is one the same page and progresses smoothly
Meanwhile, the lads on the ground are still hard at it, hopefully some more results in the coming weeks, drilling continues at Rupice and JB, until you put boots on the ground it’s hard to see all the work they are doing in fairly difficult terrain
The terrain is difficult but it’s not a dealbreaker. This is the entrance to what was the former production portal at JB. You can see 1990 at the top of entrance. It only produced for 2/3 years, to me it seems unlikely they built that for just 2/3 yrs worth of resources.
For context, Right next to the entrance is where the soil samples were taken and released to the market not long ago which showed excellent grades. I find it very unlikely there isn’t more mineralisation at JB, finding it is the challenge.
The exisiting Veovaca tailings Dam is undergoing testing to see whether it can be utilised/upgraded, no indication yet as to if this may be viable. Again there are powerlines running straight over the top of it across the hills. Cheap power easily accessible all across Vares
I couldn’t get a decent photo encompassing the whole VV site. This is looking across part of site, the white 3 story buildings in background is being refurbished. The ground floor is mainly complete comprising Offices and core shed. Enough space for workers Accom when time comes
This maybe shows a bit better the size of the on-site building that is currently being used, also part of the old plant in the foreground.
Last but not least, the local Bosnian brew aint half bad either
