Coda Minerals Advances Hydrogeological Campaign at Elizabeth Creek Copper Project

Coda Minerals (ASX: COD) has completed two of six proposed holes in a hydrogeological drilling campaign at its Elizabeth Creek copper project in South Australia.

The campaign remains on track for completion in September despite minor weather delays, with the company rig relocated from the Windabout deposit to Emmie Bluff.

The hydrogeological campaign will be followed by reverse circulation (RC) drilling of six holes for 400 metres at the Oakden prospect to test shallow mineralisation identified by historical exploration including a best intercept of 3m at 1.15% copper from 39m at the OK36 target.

The mineralisation is hosted within relatively shallow Tapley Hill Formation black shale along a broadly northwest-southeast trend.

Staged Exploration Program

The RC work forms part of a staged exploration program at Oakden designed to minimise expenditure while rapidly establishing whether the historical mineralisation can be replicated.

It will seek to test short-range continuity of the mineralisation at distances of up to 200m from OK36, confirm the current geological interpretation of the Tapley Hill Formation geometry, and determine whether a second phase of drilling is required.

That phase would comprise up to 22 additional holes to assess the broader strike extent of mineralisation and test Coda’s interpretation of the prospective stratigraphic margin and could prove that Oakden represents a source of shallow material complementary to MG14.

Coda believes that the prospective corridor at Oakden broadly follows the interpreted margin of Tapley Hill, suggesting that copper mineralisation may strengthen as the prospective shale unit narrows towards the margin.

A similar relationship between stratigraphic geometry and the distribution of copper is observed elsewhere at Elizabeth Creek—including at Emmie Bluff, where thicker and higher-grade mineralisation occurs towards the margins of the mineralised system.

Logical Next Step

Coda chief executive officer Chris Stevens said the Oakden campaign was a logical next step after the work at Emmie Bluff.

“Oakden is a focused, relatively low-cost opportunity to test shallow copper mineralisation close to our existing development project,” he said.

“This is relatively early-stage exploration, but even a modest source of shallow material could provide potential early mill feed while underground development at Emmie Bluff is underway.”

“The first program is deliberately small: confirm the historical result, test continuity, and expand subject to results.”

Oakden sits approximately 15 kilometres south-southwest of Elizabeth Creek’s MG14 and Cattle Grid open pit resources.