In the lead up to Christmas, Coda Minerals has delivered a gift of its own – a maiden mineral resource for the Emmie Bluff copper-cobalt deposit at its Elizabeth Creek project in South Australia. The company calculated a resource at Emmie Bluff of 43 million tonnes going at 1.3 per cent copper, 470 ppm cobalt and 11 g/t silver cementing its position amongst the largest known sediment hosted copper deposits in Australia.
The maiden resource calculation boosts the combined tonnage to 1.1 million tonnes of contained copper equivalent across the Windabout, MG4 and Emmie Bluff Zambian-style copper-cobalt deposits at Elizabeth Creek.
Emmie Bluff is one of the very few nickel-independent sources of cobalt in Australia according to the company. Coda says the cobalt is hosted in the mineral carrolite, which is considered to be relatively easy to recover and process using simple conventional methods.
Interestingly, the price of cobalt has soared since the start of the year trading below US$35,000 in January and hovering around a three and a half year high of US$70,000 in mid-December. The surge in the cobalt price comes off the back of increasing demand to meet the supply of lithium-ion batteries needed to produce electric vehicles amid the world’s transition to green energy.
Since listing on the ASX in October last year Coda has hardly paused for breath, systematically drill testing the Emmie Bluff copper-cobalt deposit to underpin a maiden JORC 2012 mineral resource estimate as well as actively exploring for Iron Ore Copper Gold – “IOCG” mineralisation at the Emmie Bluffs Deep prospect, only 400 metres south-west of the Emmie Bluff deposit.
It was the discovery of the Emmie Bluffs Deep IOCG deposit back in June that struck a match under the Coda share price hurtling it from $0.40 to a high of $1.75.
Coda Minerals Chief Executive Officer, Chris Stevens said: “This is an exceptional result for shareholders. Coda listed on the ASX in October last year with two clear objectives – to progress the Zambian-style Emmie Bluff copper-cobalt mineralisation towards a maiden Mineral Resource and to explore the deeper IOCG prospects for potential Tier-1 scale discoveries. In just over a year since listing, we have delivered on both objectives in spades.”
He continues: “In addition to the Zambian style copper-cobalt Resources delivered today, we continue to explore for IOCG (iron oxide copper-gold) mineralisation at Elizabeth Creek with two rigs turning 24/7. We expect to continue delivering news-flow from this drilling the weeks and months ahead as we progress this exciting discovery in tandem with the development opportunity based on the Zambian-style copper-cobalt resource announced today.”
Located within South Australia’s coveted Gawler Craton, 70 per cent owner Coda and ASX-listed joint venture partner Torrens Mining have amassed 739 square kilometres of prime real estate in one of Australia’s premier copper-gold discovery and production districts.
Emmie Bluff is within 20 kilometres of BHP’s exciting Oak Dam copper-gold discovery. Elizabeth Creek is about 100km south of BHP’s giant Olympic Dam copper-gold-uranium-silver mine.
Coda says it has already commenced scoping level studies into mining and processing the Emmie Bluff deposit which will form the basis of a full pre-feasibility study across the three Zambian-style sediment hosted copper-cobalt deposits.
The company reported ongoing studies will include metallurgical and floatation test work, preliminary mining and geotechnical studies and further geological modelling of the hosting sedimentary sequence.
Additional infill drilling is also slated to improve the confidence of the resource from inferred to indicated along with extending the boundaries of the mineral resource.
As 2021 draws to an end, Coda continues to probe the depths of the Emmie Bluffs Deep IOCG prospect with two rigs continuing around the clock in tandem with progressing the development of the Emmie Bluff copper-cobalt deposit. Market observers can expect a steady news flow from the Elizbeth Creek JV operator as Coda looks to repeat its triumphs in 2022.
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By Matt Birney
