ASX junior Coda Minerals expects to present a preliminary economic assessment in mid-2022 for its Emmie Bluff copper-cobalt “near-term development opportunity” in South Australia after reporting a maiden indicated and inferred resource of 43 million tonnes grading 1.3% copper and 470 parts per million cobalt this week.
The resource, on the back of extensive drilling since Coda’s October 2020 ASX listing, also carries silver grades averaging 11 grams per tonne and 0.15% zinc for total estimated metal content of about 560,000t copper, 20,000t cobalt, 15.5 million ounces silver and 66,000t zinc. Coda said some 39Mt, or 90%, of the maiden resource is indicated.
“The maiden JORC 2012 mineral resource unveiled today demonstrates the sheer scale of Emmie Bluff in terms of contained copper and cobalt tonnages and the size and quality of the mineral resource highlights its clear potential as a near-term development opportunity for the company,” Coda CEO Chris Stevens said.
“In addition to the Zambian style copper-cobalt resources delivered today, we continue to explore for iron oxide copper-gold [IOCG] mineralisation at Elizabeth Creek with two rigs turning 24/7.”
Coda said mining and metallurgy studies were “well advanced”.
It said Emmie Bluff, about 100km south of BHP’s massive Olympic Dam copper-gold-uranium deposit and 50km west of OZ Minerals’ Carrapateena copper-gold project, was among the largest known sediment-hosted copper deposits in Australia.
The maiden resource area is about 400m north-east of Coda’s emerging IOCG discovery at Emmie Bluff Deeps, where the company announced significant drill hits in June this year. Drilling is said to be continuing on the deeper target.
Coda Minerals’ share price is up nearly 200% in 2021 at A95c – with the shares hitting $1.75 back in June – to capitalise the company at circa-$86.5 million.
