Coda Minerals says stage 1 drilling at its Emmie iron oxide-copper-gold deposit in South Australia has enhanced geological understanding of the site and highlighted strong targets for further exploration.
The company recently received the finals assays from the successful 23,000m drill campaign that identified three major conduits at the site including two geochemically and geologically distinct bornite zones.
Coda says the results show a significant copper and gold system exists at Emmie that represents an outstanding exploration target and will follow up with advanced geophysical surveys aiming to locate additional structures to provide further thickness and scale to the geological model.
Potential targets include an extension of the bornite zone and associated mineralisation along strike of the three identified conduits.
The company says its next step at the deposit is the deployment of an Acoustic Noise Tomography survey in December with the initial survey expected to cover around 40 square kilometres across Emmie Bluff and the Emmie IOCG.
The survey will be made using Fleet Space Technologies’ Exosphere — a real-time seismic exploration technique that is able to indicate the depth of structures within cover and basement rock.
The survey will allow for detailed 3D constrained forward modelling of magnetic and gravity data in addition to providing indications of velocity anomalies which may indicate the presence of material iron oxide deposition.
Coda Minerals Chief Executive Officer, Chris Stevens said: “Coda’s own drilling indicates the presence of a mineralised corridor of at least a kilometre long and half a kilometre wide, with historical drilling suggesting the mineralised system could potentially extend up to 3km from the discovery hole. This implies the presence of a much larger plumbing system, which we’re only just beginning to understand.”
The company says the upcoming survey will provide a fresh and detailed look at the numerous other geophysical targets in the immediate area.
The Emmie prospect forms part of Coda’s Elizabeth Creek copper project that lies 100km south of BHP’s Olympic Dam mine, 15km from BHP’s Oak Dam West project and 50km west of OZ Minerals’ Carrapateena copper-gold project in South Australia’s world-class Gawler Craton.
The company says the latest drill results suggest the deposit was created by a near identical hydrothermal fluid as its Eastern Gawler cousins, with the key difference appearing to be that it is located at a lower pressure that was insufficient to fracture the rocks and create the hydrothermal breccias typical of nearby deposits.
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