Coda Minerals has wrapped up a 27-hole, 2800m RC drilling campaign at its Cameron River copper-gold project located in the world-class Mt Isa mineral province in northern Queensland.
The company’s maiden drilling program was designed to probe a clutch of promising coincident geochemical and geophysical targets at Cameron River with the project’s Bluey, Bingo, Clifford, Copper Weed and Rebound prospects first-off the rank to feel the drill bit.
Coda says early visual identification of copper-bearing sulphides over broad intervals suggest it has tapped into a copper-mineralised system responsible for the surface copper mineralisation previously identified at Cameron River.
At the Copper Weed South and Rebound prospects copper-sulphides, including chalcopyrite and bornite have been logged across multiple holes.
At the Rebound prospect, the company previously reported it had outlined an induced-polarisation – or ‘IP’ anomaly trend extending for at least 1200m linked with a geochemical anomaly.
Previous systematic rock chip sampling at Copper Weed and Rebound delivered a clutch of solid hits including 12.6 per cent copper, 2.27 grams per tonne gold and 156.7 g/t silver.
Drill hole samples were also analysed in the field using a portable X-ray fluorescence, or ‘pXRF’ instrument. Whilst the pXRF only gives a partial analysis of samples, it provides explorers a quick and efficient method for identifying anomalous results in the field.
Encouragingly, the company reported anomalous copper from pXRF analysis confirms the broad intercepts of copper anomalism identified in the drilling.
Samples have been delivered to the laboratory with results expected later this year.
With the 2023 field season in northern Queensland rapidly closing in, the company says it will use the time in between to conduct a thorough review of drill results and reinterpret geophysical data.
Interestingly, Coda says several geophysical anomalies remain unexplained and prospective, particularly at the Bingo prospect.
Cameron River takes in 35 square kilometres of gold and copper prospective terrain in the renowned Mt Isa province, one of the world’s richest mineral-producing regions.
The area houses a raft of significant operations, including Glencores’ Mount Isa copper project, Aeris Resources' Mount Colin gold and copper operation and the Mary Kathleen uranium mine.
Coda entered into a binding farm-in and joint venture agreement with private company Wilgus Investments early last year to acquire up to an 80 per cent stake in the project.
The terms of the deal require Coda to outlay $2 million on exploration over the next three years. Once this has been met, both companies will fund the project on a pro-rata basis.
Back in South Australia, Coda is neck deep in mining studies at its Elizabeth Creek copper-cobalt project as puts the finishing touches on a scoping study due for completion later this month.
Elizabeth Creek takes in three deposits for a total contained copper equivalent resource of 1.1 million tonnes. Emmie Bluff, the project's largest deposit boasts a 43 million tonne copper equivalent resource going 1.84 per cent.
The operation’s other two assets, Windabout and MG14, host an 18 million tonne copper equivalent resource at 1.14 per cent and a 1.8 million tonne resource running 1.67 per cent copper equivalent, respectively.
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By Matt Birney
