Visit of students from Greece

The UPatras S.E.G. Student Chapter is a Scientific Association of students from the Department of Geology of the University of Patras that focuses on the subject of Economic Geology and is a chapter of the International Community of the Society of Economic Geologists (https://www.segweb.org/).

The Association consists of active students of all Study Cycles (BSc, MSc, PhD) and is supervised by our Academic Advisor, Associate Professor Dr. Stavros Kalaitzidis, and our Industry Advisor Dr. Georgios Falalakis.

Our chapter has carried out a series of activities in recent years, such as educational seminars, participation in an international vlog competition, with the contribution: “Tracing the Al journey from the deep ocean … to Delphi”, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKHUI4XQFeM&t=5s), while in 2022 we held our first field-based workshop in Poland (https://tinyurl.com/3r75zyhx).

This year, our chapter organized a 7-day field-based workshop entitled “Geo-Exploration of Critical Elements in Balkans” in Serbia in collaboration with the Serbian Geological Society, section of Economic Geology, and University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mining and Geology during the period of 01-07 July.

The general program started with a visit to the Faculty of Mining and Geology accompanied by Professors Dr. Dragana Životić and Dr. Vladimir Simić in which we had the opportunity to observe the amazing collection of ores and minerals of Serbia, followed by a highlight visit to the Tesla Museum and enjoying the interactive experiments of the exhibition. Of course, the weekend included a visit to Belgrade Fortress, a boat cruise on Danube River and lots of tasting of local cuisine at Belgrade’s picturesque streets.

The main technical program, starting on Monday the 3^rd of July, included a visit to the Kostolac lignite mine owned by Elektroprivreda Srbije where Miocene xylite-rich lignite is exploited. After a short lecture on the basic geological characteristics of the lignite basin and the exploitation methods we visited the open pit and observed the lignite-bearing strata and the whole extracting process. A few meters away from the open pit the team had the chance to visit the Archaeological site of Viminacium, which also hosts palaeontological specimens and particularly a perfectly preserved fossil of a Mammoth.

On Tuesday 4^th we visited the facilities of Dundee Precious Metals Inc. (DPM), which is mainly active in exploration for gold and copper in the high-grade deposit at Čoka Rakita. Our team was able to observe drilling activities at DPM’s active exploration site, and later to examine cores and get a short-training on core-logging from the skarn mineralisation at DPM’s offices.

On Wednesday 5^th the team visited the Rogozna Gold-Copper-Zinc Project in southern Serbia owned by Zlatna Reka Resources, an Ibaera Capital subsidiary. The polymetallic mineralisation intersected in the area is characterized by disseminated to semi-massive zones of chalcopyrite, sphalerite, pyrite, and hematite with subordinate galena within intensely altered retrograde skarn. The Geological Staff trained our team in logging the core, conducting XRF measurements and gave as a short tour at their core cutting room and other samples preparation facilities. Later in the afternoon we observed an ophiolite sequence located near the Maglič Castle.

On our final day in Serbia, Thursday 6^th of July we visited Rio Tinto’s Jadar Lithium Project in Loznica in the Jadar Valley in Western Serbia. The team had the chance to observe numerous cores of hydrothermal lithium and boron mineralization hosted within lacustrine sediments.

The UPatras S.E.G. Student Chapter wants to thank Professors Dr. Dragana Životić and Dr. Vladimir Simić from University of Belgrade and our Academic Advisor Dr. Stavros Kalaitzidis who accompanied us during our stay in Serbia and of course all the personnel of companies: Elektroprivreda Srbije, Dundee Precious Metals Inc, Zlatna Reka Resources and Rio Tinto for the fantastic hospitality and enthusiastic coaching. Special thanks to Nenad Predić (JP Elektroprivreda Srbije), Dragana Davidović, Mladen Zdravković, Dragan Milošević, Aleksandra Janković (DPM), Dr. Milorad Antić, Mila Obradović, Momčilo Rečević and Jonathan Hunt (Zlatna Reka Resources), Ivana Misailović, Toma Grubin, Dušan Tanasković (Rio-Tinto).

Additionally, we express our gratitude to the Special Research Account Office of University of Patras, the Society of Economic Geologists, and the Companies METKA ATE., Hellas Gold SA., Topalidis S.A., Delphi-Distomon S.A, Lithos Geological Services, ΤΕΒΕΚ – Lyros & Associates, Unisol Α.Ε. and Geo-Environment-D. Tsagkas, as well as Kavvadias Tours for their vital contribution to our goal, since without their support this field workshop would not be possible.