South Australian focused copper-cobalt explorer, Coda Minerals continues to deliver the goods at the Elizabeth Creek project in the Olympic Dam Copper Province. High grade hits at the Emmie Bluff prospect going up to 4.71 per cent copper equivalent have the company well placed to turn out a maiden resource estimate projected for the third quarter. Further drilling is due to commence in May.
The 4.71 per cent copper equivalent grade occurred for 3m from 400m downhole and was broken down into 2.85 per cent copper, 1,545 parts-per-million cobalt and 27 grams per tonne silver.
Other solid numbers from the latest drill campaign include 2.24m at 1.82 per cent copper, 1,139 ppm cobalt and 24 g/t silver from 497m in another hole and 2.13m at 2.08 per cent copper, 1,212 ppm cobalt and 28 g/t silver from 445m in yet another hole.
Following an oversubscribed IPO that raised some $8.5 million in October last year, Coda has been busy at Emmie Bluff located on the north-western edges of its 739 square kilometre project tenure. The company has wasted no time in putting down drill metres as it looks to validate an exploration target at the prospect.
The formal exploration target at Emmie Bluff currently sits between 46 and 77 million tonnes with an estimated grade of between 0.5 per cent and 2.3 per cent copper equivalent. Management says every hole drilled to date across the 4.5km target has encountered mineralisation.
The stellar hits released this week from a seventeen-hole diamond drill program add to previously reported significant intercepts as the company eyes out a maiden JORC compliant resource estimate for the prospect.
Coda management says the new assays demonstrate potential to extend high-grade zones within the exploration target and also extend the overall mineralised footprint.
Results previously reported in March returned hits including 7.58 metres going 0.84 per cent copper, 558 parts-per-million cobalt and 8.1 g/t silver from around 440m depth, whilst a 3.56m interval in another hole returned 0.64 per cent copper, 360 ppm cobalt and 9.2 g/t silver from 419m.
Coda also continues to assess the potential for extensions of the known mineralisation and has now commissioned a study into the structural geology of Emmie Bluff as it looks to generate further drill targets.
Elizabeth Creek is located in the revered copper province of South Australia some 100km south of the world-renowned Olympic Dam copper-gold-uranium mine operated by mining behemoth BHP, whilst 50km to the east lies the Carrapateena copper-gold mine operated by ASX-listed miner OZ Minerals.
Elizabeth Creek already has an early copper resource at the Windabout and MG14 deposits located in the central part of the project tenure.
At Windabout, an indicated resource of 17.67 million tonnes going 0.77 per cent copper, 0.05 per cent cobalt and 8 g/t silver is present, whilst MG14 hosts 1.83 million tonnes at 1.24 per cent copper, 0.03 per cent cobalt and 14 g/t silver also in the indicated category. The two deposits combine for an impressive 159,000 tonnes of contained copper, 9,400 tonnes of contained cobalt and around 5.4 million ounces of silver.
Elizabeth Creek is already looking the goods and as the price of copper continues to trade at close to historical highs a few pluses are likely to quicken if Coda can deliver a resource anywhere near the upper end of its exploration target.
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By Matt Birney
