Coda narrows in on Queensland copper-gold targets

ASX-listed Coda Minerals is narrowing in on a highly prospective 2 kilometre long copper-gold mineralised corridor at its Cameron River project near Mt Isa in Queensland. Systematic rock chip sampling has returned a bevy of high-grade results over the historical Copper Weed and Rebound prospects, along with identifying several new targets.

Earlier this year Coda entered into a binding farm-in and joint venture agreement with private entity Wilgus Investments to pick up the interesting looking Cameron River project. Under the agreement Coda will spend $2 million on exploration over the next three years to earn an 80 per cent holding in the project after which time both companies will contribute funds on a pro-rata basis to advance the project.

The new copper-gold project sits between Mt Isa and Cloncurry in the Mary Kathleen Domain within the Mt Isa Province where the project comprises two granted exploration licenses that cover more than 35 square kilometres of stratigraphy. The ground is prospective for a range of metals however, Coda says it will focus on deep seated copper-gold deposits, in particular iron oxide copper-gold, or “IOCG” mineralisation similar to its deeper Emmie Bluff target at Elizabeth Creek in South Australia.

Previous exploration across the Cameron River tenure hints at the regional prospectivity with geochemical sampling returning a wealth of copper and gold results including surface samples grading up to 6.58 grams per tonne gold and an impressive 22 per cent copper.

Coda reported it has conducted three rock chip sampling programmes collecting a total of 696 samples over the most prospective areas across the two tenements.

The Copper Weed and Rebound prospects have been the principle focus of historical exploration with further sampling over these areas by Coda turning up several high-grade results including 12.6 per cent copper and 2.27 g/t gold and 9.2 per cent copper, 2.74 g/t gold along with an impressive 156.7 g/t silver.

Encouragingly, Coda says rock chip sampling has expanded the scale of the Copper Weed-Rebound geochemical corridor over 2km north-south and 800 metres east-west with the potential to expand further to the north.

Outside the Copper Weed-Rebound corridor, Coda reported it had generated several targets from historic geophysical and hyperspectral data and selected the two most prospective targets for sampling.

The Clear Waters prospect in the northeast of the project was identified by Coda as a potential rare earth element-copper anomaly from hyperspectral imagery. Rock chipping by Coda confirmed the presence of copper with an impressive 12.1 per cent copper and 0.23 g/t gold.

Additionally, the Wishbone prospect in the northwest of the project returned anomalous copper and gold grades up to 2.6 per cent copper and 0.15 g/t gold.

Although these headline numbers are impressive, the Mt Isa region is well known for supergene enrichment to high grades of copper and gold in rock chip samples, and these do not always indicate a material copper endowment nearby. In this case however, our enthusiasm comes more from the support that these geochemical results provide for targets which were generated using a multifaceted approach emphasising geophysics and structural geology as well as the scale, lateral extent and repeatability of the Copper Weed/Rebound anomalism in particular.

He added: “With numerous walk-up drill targets now defined at the surface, the potential of the Cameron River Project for a short-term discovery is stronger than ever.”

Coda will look to utilise the expertise it has amassed from exploration at Emmie Bluff in the Gawler Craton to fast-track its program in Queensland. The company is currently negotiating access agreements with landholders, whilst undertaking heritage surveys as its looks toward a reverse circulation drilling program aimed to kick start at the end of the wet season.

Back in SA, Coda continues to receive solid results from its Emmie Bluff Deep discovery, with latest intercepts from that project returning 17.1m at 1.2 per cent copper and 0.3 g/t gold from 824m and 24m at 2.2 per cent copper and 0.3 g/t gold from 815m.

Sitting on a cash balance of more than $20 million and with Emmie Bluff continuing to produce the base load of geological goodies, Cameron River looks to be something of a blue-sky addition to Coda’s armoury. However, if Coda can nail the source of these high-grade rock chips and with copper prices hovering at all-time highs around US$10,000, this little blue sky addition does seem worth the punt.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au