(Sharecast News) - Minerals explorer and developer Beowulf Mining updated the market on two licences added to the Vardar Minerals exploration portfolio, both located along the "highly prospective" Vardar lead-zinc-silver trend in northern Kosovo.

The AIM-traded firm owns 59.5% of Vardar Minerals.

It said the licences covered 115 square kilometres, and extended the coverage of Vardar's Mitrovica and Shala exploration projects, both of which displayed "abundant" evidence of active epithermal systems with associated lead-zinc-silver and gold-silver-copper mineralisation;

The new licences also included prospective carbonate host rocks along with oligocene magmatic rocks, which provide the heat and metal source in the surrounding lead-zinc ore districts.

Alteration and gossan outcrops had also been noted in early reconnaissance visits, which Beowulf said further demonstrated the potential for lead-zinc-silver mineralisation in both of the licences.

"Since the end of summer, we have had a number of positive announcements regarding the successes being achieved by the Vardar team in Kosovo," said chief executive officer Kurt Budge.

"Most recently, the announcement of the Red Lead target, displaying all the key geological markers of the neighbouring Stan Terg deposit and mine, and now a priority target for drilling in spring 2023."

Budge said the district being explored in northern Kosovo was "highly prospective", with "abundant evidence" of widespread lead-zinc-silver mineralisation, adding that the addition of the new licences to Vardar's portfolio was a further "exciting" development.

"The Vardar team continues to use state-of-the-art exploration methodologies in the process of identifying new opportunities and is maintaining a competitive first-mover advantage in the region.

"Vardar's expanded licence position has established a dominant land holding in the highly prospective areas surrounding the Stan Terg lead-zinc-silver mine."

At the close on Friday, shares in Beowulf Mining were flat at 4.25p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.