Coda Minerals has completed its earn in over the Elizabeth Creek JV in SA after spending over $8.6 million on exploration since the farm-in agreement with Torrens Mining was consummated in 2017. Coda now speaks for 70 per cent of the rapidly developing copper project where it is eyeing an extensive new resource at the Emmie Bluff discovery.
Both parties are now set to contribute on a pro-rata basis as work continues across the strategic land holding in the revered Gawler Craton.
Coda remains the manager and operator of the Elizabeth Creek project and can acquire a further 5 per cent of the JV by making an addition one-off payment to Torrens of $1.5 million.
The project already boasts a rich-endowment of copper in two key deposits within the JV tenure, with ongoing drilling at the Emmie Bluff continuing to quicken a few pulses.
Coda has settled on an impressive exploration target at Emmie Bluff alone of 46.1m and 76.8m tonnes grading between 0.3 and 1.6 per cent copper and 5 to 19 grams per tonne silver.
The company expects to release its maiden JORC resource for Emmie Bluff in the months ahead.
Coda Minerals Chief Executive Officer, Chris Stevens said:“We expect the drill rigs to be turning again at Elizabeth Creek before the end of this month and we are looking forward to what we expect to be a really busy and potentially transformational 6-8 months for the newly-formed Joint Venture as we take our Mineral Resource base at Elizabeth Creek to the next level and begin testing highly-prospective IOCG targets at depth.”
The Elizabeth Creek JV is located around 450km north of Adelaide in South Australia. The project comprises two granted exploration licenses which cover approximately 740 square kilometres of the coveted Olympic Dam copper province on the eastern margin of South Australia’s Gawler Craton.
Coda’s Elizabeth Creek project sits within the same neighbourhood as some of the world’s best known IOCG deposits including the colossal Olympic Dam deposit situated 100km to the north of the JV tenure and the huge Carrapateena mine, just 50km to the east.
The recent discovery of BHP’s Oak Dam prospect, a mere 15km to the north of Elizabeth Creek provides a significant incentive for Coda and Torrens to continue their hunt across this under-explored terrane.
Coda’s exploration to date has already identified a wealth of copper prospects at Elizabeth Creek including Zambian-style, sediment hosted copper targets at Emmie Bluff, Windabout and MG14, in addition to two deeper Olympic Dam-style IOCG targets at Emmie Bluff Deeps and Elaine.
Interestingly, Coda’s resource at Windabout tips the scales at 17.67 million tonnes grading 0.77 per cent copper and 8 g/t silver, providing a springboard for the company’s ongoing exploration program. However, with an impending maiden resource over Emmie Bluff, Coda is set to build on its growing inventory of the valuable technology metal.
Coda has now locked in its holding at Elizabeth Creek and with the company preparing to test the Emmie Bluff Deeps and Elaine IOCG targets, it looks ready to feed a stream of results into a market hungry for copper news as the red metal once again pushes towards an incredible US$9,000 a tonne.
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