Coda builds Australian copper portfolio
Coda Minerals continues to receive solid results from its copper discovery at Emmie Bluff in SA, however the ASX-listed company is now casting its eye further afield as it looks to build a pipeline of copper projects in Australia. This week the company picked up the interesting looking Cameron River project located in one of Australia’s best known mineral fields – the Mt Isa Province of north Queensland.
The new copper-gold project sits between Mt Isa and Cloncurry in the Mary Kathleen Domain within the Mt Isa Province where the project comprises two granted exploration licenses that cover more than 35 square kilometres of stratigraphy. The ground is prospective for a range of metals however Coda says it will focus on deep seated copper-gold deposits, in particular iron oxide copper-gold, or “IOCG” mineralisation similar to its deeper targets at Elizabeth Creek in SA.
The Mary Kathleen Domain already hosts a number of historical and operational mines including Round Oak’s Mt Colin copper mine and the shuttered Mary Kathleen uranium mine, both of which lie immediately south of Coda’s new project area
Previous exploration across the Cameron River tenure hints at the regional prospectivity with geochemical sampling returning a wealth of copper and gold results including surface samples grading up to 6.58 grams per tonne gold and an impressive 22 per cent copper.
Coda Minerals Chief Executive Officer, Chris Stevens said: “With numerous shallow, well-defined targets, Cameron River offers the potential for rapid, low-cost exploration without compromising the pace of ongoing activity at our flagship Emmie Bluff Project or our upcoming IOCG exploration at Elizabeth Creek.”
“We see this as a logical and complementary addition to our existing portfolio of copper projects in South Australia that will open up a second platform for discovery, exploration success and, ultimately, resource growth for Coda in a Tier-1 copper province.”
Coda will look to utilise the expertise that it has amassed from exploration at Emmie Bluff in the Gawler Craton to fast-track its program in Queensland. The company has already identified a key area in the Cameron River area which it says appears to be the right geological environment to host a sizeable IOCG deposit.
Reconnaissance across the historic Rebound and Copper Weed prospects in the southern tenement area shows the presence of a number of mafic bodies which intrude the basement stratigraphy, with strong copper and gold geochemistry extending along more than 1.8 kilometres of strike representing a sizeable target for future exploration.
Coda will spend $2 million on exploration over the next three years to earn an 80 per cent holding in the Cameron River project after which time it and the vendor, private company Wilgus Investments, will contribute funds on a pro-rata basis to advance the project.
The company expects to hit the ground running at Cameron River in the coming weeks and is designing a comprehensive program of mapping and sampling across the tenement area, much of which remains untouched by modern exploration. Coda will also commission a program of airborne electromagnetics to help locate new targets across the terrane and firm up drill targets in the southern tenement area.
Back in South Australia, Coda continues to receive solid results from its Emmie Bluff discovery, with latest intercepts from that project returning 7.58 metres at 1.51 per cent copper equivalent, including 3.77m at 2.1 per cent copper equivalent from 440.63m, confirming the lateral extent of the discovery.
The company maintains its exploration target of 46.1 and 76.8 million tonnes at Emmie Bluff grading at 0.3 to 1.6 per cent copper and 5 to 19 grams per tonne silver, however with results continuing to roll in and early work kicking off for an estimation of a resource over Emmie Bluff, Coda is looking for its next challenge.
With $10 million in the bank and Emmie Bluff continuing to produce the base load of geological goodies, Cameron River looks to be something of a blue-sky addition to Coda’s armoury. With rock chips going 6.58 grams per tonne gold and 22 per cent copper, if Coda can sniff out the source of that grade , it will indeed have added a lot of blue-sky to its project pipeline.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au