Tsvetana Jeleva
Project Manager, Krumovgrad Exploration, Dundee Precious Metals Inc.
Graduate of Sofia University "Kliment Ohridski". Since 1980 she has been working as a geologist. She dealt with various aspects of the problems of discovery, exploration and evaluation of precious metals.
Since 2000, and currently, she is working at DPM Krumovgrad. She directly participated in the discovery and exploration of the Ada Tepe section of the Khan Krum deposit, from a geochemical anomaly to a deposit and mine.
Her inner understanding is the application of the international geological slogan "Mente Et Malleo" (“With a thought and a hammer”), so that something new can be discovered, and of course a bit of luck.
Discovery and Geology of Ada Tepe
Kran Krum deposit is located about 3 km in southeast direction from the town of Krumovgrad, at the area known as Ada Тepe hill.
The geological model comprises of two well-defined lithological units:
– Pre-Paleogene Metamorphic Basement
– Paleogene Sedimentary Complex
The upper contact of the metamorphic sequence is marked by transgressional and discordant position of the Paleogene sediments, later cross-cut by oblique reverse and sub-horizontal detachment faults.
The complicated morphology of the orebodies is caused by combination of structural and lithological factors. The gold mineralization is hosted predominantly by the sediments of Krumovgrad group and has textural and geochemical signature of typical low-sulfidation epithermal deposit. Two major zones of mineralization are defined – the Lower zone is represented by massive quartz-metasomatic body at the contact with basement rocks and Upper zone, represented by steeply dipping and East-West striking veins.
The area of the deposit has been explored by surface workings until 1997, but later on the team of BMM (now DPM) carries on detail trench and drill campaigns leading to the start of the first modern mine in Bulgaria in 2019 – Ada tepe.