Copper has had a good run this year and that has proven to be a real drawcard for investors who have sent shares in Gindalbie Metals spin-off company Coda Minerals (ASX:COD) soaring more than 45 per cent to 44c on its first day of trading.

This should not come as any surprise to keen observers given that its initial public offering (IPO) opened to such strong demand that the maximum subscription was quickly ramped up to $8.5m, well above the circa $6.5m it had sought originally.

Much of this interest can be distilled down to its Elizabeth Creek copper project in South Australia where drilling on the priority Emmie Bluff deposit is already underway.

This drilling is aimed at expanding the envelope of the exploration target in line with recently released seismic data and to provide fresh drill core for geotechnical and metallurgical analysis, as well as additional bulk density measurements.

Emmie Bluff has a current exploration target of between 46Mt to 77Mt grading 0.5 per cent to 2.3 per cent copper equivalent while Elizabeth Creek has a JORC resource of 158,000t of copper and 9,400t of cobalt.

“It has been a pleasing first day which I think reflects the quality of the Elizabeth Creek Project and the Coda Minerals team generally, as well as the current interest in and forecasts for the broader copper sector,” chief executive officer Chris Stevens told Stockhead.

“We were delighted with the very positive response during the IPO raise and the share price appears to reflect ongoing demand for the stock as we commence drilling at Emmie Bluff.”

Big copper potential

Elizabeth Creek consists of three tenements covering 739sqkm that is 135km north of Port Augusta and 100km south of BHP’s giant Olympic Dam mine.

The project is host to different styles of copper mineralisation, including iron oxide copper-gold deposits typical of the Eastern Gawler Craton.

Elizabeth Creek has a JORC-compliant resource of 159,000 tonnes of copper and 9,400 tonnes of cobalt on an indicated basis.

The Gawler Craton is host to a number of high-profile mining operations, including BHP’s Olympic Dam copper-uranium mine, and OZ Minerals’ (ASX:OZL) Carrapateena and Prominent Hill projects.

Stevens told Stockhead that the Emmie Bluff deposit remains very much open to the south.

“We closed off the seismic lines due to the terrain becoming more challenging. At present, the deposit is unconstrained by drilling for at least 2.5km from the southernmost seismic line,” he added.

Coda, which was spun off from Gindalbie after it was acquired by Ansteel in July 2019, has already spent $5.6m on exploration at Elizabeth Creek, which it has already earned a 51 per cent stake in.

A further $1m in exploration expenditure will take its stake up to 70 per cent.

Once this is completed, the company has the option to increase its ownership by a further 5 per cent by paying $1.5m.