Coda Minerals has extended the central bornite zone of the Emmie iron oxide-copper-gold, or ‘IOCG’ deposit within its Elizabeth Creek copper project in South Australia’s Gawler Craton.
The explorer says recent drilling has intersected significant widths of bornite and chalcopyrite mineralisation.
Importantly, the results materially extend the bornite zone discovered 100m to the southeast and support the potential for further mineralisation to the south.
Coda notes the mineralisation at Emmie IOCG encouragingly remains fully open to the east, south and northeast.
Additionally, the findings bolster Coda’s updated exploration model for the project.
The explorer’s strategy is to target additional conduits for mineralisation across the broader IOCG anomaly, seeking both lateral extensions and more importantly, increased thickness.
The company has started drilling another hole about 500m to the north, testing a potential third mineralised zone.
Management says the scoping study into the copper-cobalt project remains on track for delivery early in the second half of the year.
Interestingly, IOCG deposits are typified as large-scale, with a strong endowment of minerals and consequently have the potential to support highly-profitable operations.
Most notably, the Gawler Craton hosts BHP’s world-renowned Olympic Dam and other deposits such as Prominent Hill and Carrapateena.
Additionally, the explorer has plunged the first hole into its Central Elain Zone IOCG prospect about 15km south of Emmie IOCG.
Coda’s cash balance is hovering around the $11 million mark, leaving the company well-funded to advance exploration work.
The announcement is also well-timed on the back of the company moving to compulsory acquire the remaining shares in Torrens Mining to complete its 100 per cent Elizabeth Creek ownership strategy.
On the east coast, Coda has lit up multiple targets from ongoing induced polarisation surveys at its Cameron River copper-gold project in Queensland.
The company says additional surveys are to be conducted at the Bluey and Bingo prospects, where it bagged high-grade rock chips with individual peak grades of 26.3 per cent copper, 1.19 g/t gold, 0.08 per cent cobalt and 65.5 g/t silver.
Coda says the geophysics and geochemistry provide extensive evidence of prospectivity and position the company well to continue spinning the drill bit early next quarter.
A recent report by Bank of America Global Research analysts suggests the copper market will suffer a deficit from 2025 onwards as the current wave of projects is squeezed out of the pipeline. With copper appearing increasingly important in targeting net-zero, now is not a bad time to be finding more of it.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
