Coda Minerals has stepped up exploration at its Emmie Bluff IOCG discovery in South Australia, with drilling now underway to further test the mineral-rich body hidden below the desert sands 450 kilometres north-west of Adelaide. The company has now kicked off drilling of a series of daughter holes that splay off the original diamond drill hole to test the mineralisation at various levels within the stratigraphy.
The company is also mobilising an additional drill rig to site to speed up the evolving exploration program.
Follow up drilling of the iron oxide, copper-gold, or “IOCG” discovery at Emmie Bluff comes hot on the heels of a spectacular mineralised intercept from the maiden drill hole of the program, with the diamond rig turning up more than 200 metres of altered and mineralised rock. The intercept contained a 50m-thick core of sulphide-rich mineralisation that sent the market into a frenzy and tripled Coda’s share price within hours.
Portable XRF results have now confirmed the presence of copper and a host of pathfinder elements typical of IOCG deposits, including cerium, cobalt and molybdenum, within the intercept. Core from the maiden drill hole is now being cut and sampled for laboratory assaying – initial results are expected in the latter half of July.
Coda Minerals Chief Executive Officer, Chris Stevens said:“All of us at Coda are tremendously excited about the potential of the Emmie Bluff Deeps IOCG prospect. We have spent the last several days determining the most efficient and technically sound ways by which we can scale up our exploration efforts to further test the target identified by this incredible result.”
Whilst the company’s drilling continues to probe the potential of the deeper 1.8km-long IOCG body at Emmie Bluff, which appears to be similar in nature to the nearby massive Olympic Dam and Carrapateena deposits, Coda is also proving up a substantial sedimentary copper deposit just to the north-east of the IOCG discovery.
Resource drilling across the Emmie Bluff sediment deposit is looking to confirm an exploration target of 46.1 and 76.8 million tonnes grading at between 0.3 and 1.6 per cent copper. The company will likely add this substantial resource to its existing inventory of close to 20 million tonnes at 0.9 per cent copper and 8 g/t silver hosted in the MG14 and Windabout deposits south of Emmie Bluff and begin to examine potential development options for the base metal project.
Mr Stevens said: “We remain fully committed to our work programme at the Emmie Bluff Zambian style copper-cobalt deposit, which remains an exceptional copper prospect in its own right. Over the next few months we will continue to work to unlock the potential of the IOCG opportunity whilst finalising the maiden JORC mineral resource estimate for Emmie Bluff. This should create a unique opportunity for multi-pronged activity, news-flow and we hope, further significant value creation for Coda shareholders.”
With three rigs on the ground at Emmie Bluff and a fourth on the way, Coda isn’t wasting time in its efforts to prove it has a company-making discovery on its hands.
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