Coda Minerals Limited advised that all assay results have now been received from its maiden drilling programme at the Cameron River Project, located in the heart of the world-class Mt Isa mineral province in North Queensland.
The Cameron River Project comprises 35km2 of copper and gold exploration tenure immediately north of the historical Mary Kathleen Uranium Mine. In March 2021, the Company entered into a binding Farm-In and Joint Venture Agreement giving it the right to acquire up to an 80% ownership in the Cameron River Project. Final assay results have been received for RC drilling undertaken at Cameron River in September and October 2022, which comprised 26 Reverse Circulation (RC) drill-holes for a total of 2,830m. Drilling targeted the surface expression of mineralization at the Rebound, Copper Weed and Clifford prospects and the associated Gradient Array Induced Polarization (GAIP) and Dipole-Dipole Induced Polarization (DDIP) geophysical anomalies, as well as the coincident geophysical and surface geochemical anomalies at Bingo and Bluey. A total of 711 samples comprising 4m composites of RC drill cuttings were collected and submitted to ALS in Mount Isa for analysis. Assay Results The assay results returned several intersections of weak to moderately anomalous copper predominantly associated with drilling at the Copper Weed-Copper Weed South and Rebound trends, with gold, silver and cobalt assays displaying a weakly positive relationship with these copper zones. Material assays from Cameron River drilling in September and October 2022. Cut off grades of 0.1% Cu, 100 ppm Co, 0.1 g/t Au and 1 g/t Ag were used to determine materiality. All unreported samples can be assumed to fall below all 4 of those thresholds. The assay results confirm preliminary findings based on logging and field PXRF data that were reported at the completion of the drill programme2 on the 4th of October 2022. A mineralizing hydrothermal system has evidently been active within the Cameron River area, but that the tenor of the mineralization at the prospects targeted is sub-economic, with grade and thickness appearing to rapidly attenuate from their expression at the surface. Supergene enrichment does not, in the opinion of Coda's technical team, represent a sufficient explanation for these results, and the sources of the coincident geophysical and geochemical anomalism that had been defined during previous fieldwork at Cameron River remain unexplained. A detailed review of all work to date will be undertaken in the coming weeks. Down dip extensions of outcropping copper mineralization were intersected in several holes at the Copper Weed and Rebound prospects but were of lower grade than their expression in outcrop. Some limited persistence to depth by copper was noted at Copper Weed in drill hole RC22CR0001 (4m at 0.59% Cu from 8m downhole), and by cobalt (4m at 0.32% Co from 40m) in drillhole RC22CR0013 at Rebound. The cobalt mineralization in particular will be an area of further investigation for the company. The drilling at Bluey and Bingo which targeted coincident geochemical and geophysical anomalies4 did not return any significant intersections or any indicators of a source for the anomalism previously defined at the prospects. The source of the very strong conductivity anomalism at these prospects remains unexplained. Drilling at the southern extensions of the mineralized Copper Weed and Rebound trends at the Clifford, Copper Weed South and Rin Tin Tin prospects returned intervals weakly anomalous in copper. Despite the relatively lower tenor of copper noted in these drill results, the pervasive presence of copper oxides as well as sulphides at the surface and elevated pathfinder elements in soil sample programmes4 both continue to suggest hydrothermal activity, as does the local pervasive hydrothermal alteration noted by Coda field staff. The grade and thickness of mineralisation noted in mapping and surface sampling both appear to rapidly attenuate from the expression at surface to where mineralization was intersected at depth. Supergene enrichment is a probable partial explanation, but cannot explain the presence of sulphides such as chalcopyrite, which are not typical supergene products, at and near the surface. This may suggest that the main mineral occurrences have been removed by weathering and current exposures are of the base of the mineralized system, or that the sulphide expression is the result of late-stage mobilization and highly-localised recrystallisation of copper in a separate hydrothermal event. The Cameron River project area lies 12km northwest of the Mary Kathleen Uranium Mine between the regional NNE trending Cameron and Wonga Faults, and occurs within a NNW trending overturned syncline sequence of calcareous met sediments of the Paleoproterozoic Corella Formation. The project geology comprises interlayered calcareous sediments, schists and phyllites, metamorphosed limestone, marble and recrystallized marble, quartzite and magnetite- altered Corella Formation quartzite. The geology is intruded by narrow sills and dykes of dolerite, alibied leuco-granitoid veins, aplites, intersecting veins and narrow dykes along and across bedding planes. Apparent dextral offset along the regionally important, NNE-striking Fountain Range Fault led to realignment of the entire sequence from N-S trending to NNE-trending which is evident in the orientation of structural and lithological fabrics in the area. Geology within the project is tightly folded with fold axes ranging from horizontal to sub-vertically oriented and with units in the limbs steeply to sub-vertically dipping ENE to WSW, NE and NNW striking structures accommodate movement between the regional faults cut through this package.