Coda Minerals has pocketed $14.4 million from a recent oversubscribed capital raising, with the company now boasting cash reserves of more than $21 million to fund ongoing exploration in South Australia. Whilst the company has wowed the market in recent weeks with its Emmie Bluff IOCG discovery, Coda already has a substantial inventory of sedimentary-hosted copper resources at its Elizabeth Creek project and has given hints of plenty more to come.
The company’s recent capital raising was managed by Perth-based broking house CPS Capital. Coda said the placement was twice oversubscribed as various investors compete to build a position in the copper explorer.
Interestingly, investors paid $1.20 per share for the placement – less than a 5 per cent discount to today’s opening price but more than triple Coda’s share price earlier this month, demonstrating the impact Emmie Bluff has had on the company’s market standing.
Coda Minerals Chairman, Keith Jones said:“The very high level of interest from investors has translated into a strongly supported $14.4 million placement which has really set the company up for success. The proceeds will boost our total cash to $21.5 million, allowing us to progress an ambitious work program including a comprehensive program of deep holes at Emmie Bluff Deeps, resource drilling at the Emmie Bluff copper-cobalt deposit plus an aggressive regional exploration programme.”
“The next six months promises to be a transformational period for Coda shareholders.”
The company’s high-profile Emmie Bluff iron oxide, copper-gold, or “IOCG” discovery forms part of Coda’s 70 per cent owned Elizabeth Creek copper project in South Australia. The company’s tenure is about 450 kilometres north-west of Adelaide and covers more than 740 sq.km of the resurgent Gawler Craton.
Whilst a number of exploration companies have moved back into the Gawler terrane in recent years in search of gold, including Indiana Resources and ASX-aspirant Barton Gold, only a handful of explorers have shown the tenacity to chase down the elusive and deep-seated IOCG-style of mineralisation.
The allure of the deposit style is obvious given the scale of some of the monsters uncovered in Australia and other parts of the world. WMC’s Olympic Dam find in 1975 drove the company’s growth for several decades before its 2005 acquisition by BHP. Another Gawler operator, OZ Minerals has become a globally significant copper-gold producer on the back of its Prominent Hill and Carapateena discoveries.
Interestingly, Olympic Dam lies 100km to the north of Emmie Bluff and sits in the same geological terrane.
Both BHP and OZ Minerals continue to successfully explore the famed “G2 Structural Corridor” in SA, with BHP coming up trumps in 2019 with its Oak Dam discovery only 16km north of Emmie Bluff.
Oak Dam has already returned a wealth of copper-gold intercepts for BHP, with better intervals including 205 metres at 2.04 per cent copper and 0.43 grams per tonne gold from 1,247m down-hole.
Coda’s fundraising looks to have put ample fuel in the tank to continue chasing these deep intrusive IOCG bodies. The company is off to an impressive start as it drills out a 1,800m-by-1,100m geophysical target, with the first hole jagging 200m of altered and mineralised rock now in the lab awaiting assay.
However, while investors sweat on these results Coda’s trio of drill rigs at Emmie Bluff is set to become a quartet. They are focused on drilling out both its IOCG discovery and its shallower sedimentary copper target, with a resource due in the months ahead as Coda looks to stamp its own mark on this company-making copper-rich terrane.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
