Coda Minerals Limited provided an update on recent progress on the Scoping Study for the copper-cobalt Resources at its 100%-owned Elizabeth Creek Copper Project in South Australia, including some important new developments with the process plant flowsheet design. The Company has now completed work to assess all material inputs into the upcoming Scoping Study up to the point of production of a copper-cobalt concentrate from a centrally located on-site flotation plant. These studies cover the full project scope from mining, processing and transportation through to non-process infrastructure, as well as preliminary environmental and hydrogeological assessment. The part of the Scoping Study relating to the downstream processing of concentrate to final saleable products remains subject to a series of trade-off studies relating to multiple processing options. In November 2022 the Company announced the culmination of Mining Study work confirming a technically viable pathway to a steady-state 2.5 million tonnes per annum of production from the Elizabeth Creek Project. The mine plan utilises
conventional drill-and-blast techniques and an industry-standard mining fleet with flat Long-hole Open Stoping with Pillars selected as the optimal mining method for the underground Emmie Bluff copper-cobalt deposit.
Open pit studies undertaken at the same time as the underground study work proposed open pit extraction of the satellite MG14 and Windabout deposits and will allow the operation to rapidly achieve nameplate metal production during the development and ramp-up of the Emmie Bluff Underground Mine. Coda's long history with the Elizabeth Creek Project has allowed for a rapid development of the floatation portion of the processing flowsheet, giving it the ability to focus on optimising the final part of the process -the opportunity to deliver a final product on-site from the concentrate produced. As announced on 5 July 20221, Coda has completed all front-end work, resulting in exceptional recoveries to concentrate, especially in the case of cobalt which achieved a 90% recovery to concentrate. Further to that announcement, noting approximately 99% of cobalt and 99.6% of copper can be extracted from concentrate, Coda currently expects that the Albion processing technology will form the base case for downstream processing. To date, all downstream processing options assessed by Coda, including the Albion ProcessTM, have been designed to produce final, saleable products from the intermediate copper-cobalt-silver-zinc concentrate produced in the flotation plant, specifically copper cathode, battery-grade cobalt sulphate, silver dore, and zinc carbonate. In late 2022, Coda identified a non-oxidative leaching process called NONOX. NONOX is unique amongst Coda's assessed options in that it selectively leaches certain metals, potentially allowing the Company to produce a highly capital-efficient product mix of battery-grade cobalt sulphate, zinc carbonate as well as a separate stream of highly enriched copper-silver concentrate. This process is considered optimal as it provides maximum value uplift for achieving a highly saleable cobalt end-product while removing capital items required to upgrade copper-concentrate to copper cathode and silver dore on site. Moreover, the copper-silver concentrate produced during the NONOX process is upgraded relative to the original material and has many of its impurities removed, resulting in lower transport costs and high smelter returns. NONOX is currently in use in the PGM industry in Africa and in nickel processing in Europe, amongst other operations around the world. Work by independent consultants into the applicability of the NONOX Process to Elizabeth Creek material is nearing the final stages, after which all material inputs to the study will have been finalised, and a downstream option can be selected to take forward as the base case for pre-feasibility level study work.