Cohiba digs up more IOCG potential at Horse Well

Drilling at Horse Well has given Cohiba Minerals an early Christmas gift by unearthing more pointers to a major Iron Ore Copper Gold (IOCG) target zone.

The results are set to further rev up Cohiba Minerals (ASX:CHK) exploration plans at its copper projects near BHP’s (ASX:BHP) Olympic Dam and Oak Dam, as well as the OZ Minerals (ASX:OZL) assets the Big Australian is set to acquire.

IOCG deposits can offer huge, high-grade concentrations of copper, gold, and other economic minerals. Olympic Dam, in the same Gawler Craton region as CHK’s projects, is one of the world’s largest deposits of copper, gold, silver and uranium.

Now Cohiba’s drill hole HWDD08 at Horse Well, only 5km from BHP’s Oak Dam, shows the prospect meets many of the preconditions the junior is looking for in an IOCG target.

The hole was designed to follow up on low level but persistent copper mineralisation encountered in Gawler Range Volcanics in a historic Western Mining Corporation hole drilled back in June 1982.

HWDD08 intersected the newly discovered major Horse Well Fault with an offset of over 600m after drilling was completed to 1509.9m.

The Horse Well Fault is considered to have formed during regional IOCG deposit formation, with Cohiba basing this interpretation on detailed geological analysis. This revealed that the textures of the breccia (sedimentary rocks made up of mineral debris) mirroring those seen in and around other IOCG deposits.

Right place

Cohiba’s CEO, Andrew Graham says: “The Horse Well Prospect continues to provide significant encouragement that we are exploring in exactly the right locations.

“With persistent low-level copper mineralisation, the presence of beneficial structural controls and evidence of desired fluid chemistry and mixing we are convinced that the Horse Well Prospect is a major IOCG target zone. We remain committed to investigating it to the fullest extent possible and applying the best technical rigour to maximise the likelihood of exploration success.”

Cohiba now is eagerly awaiting assay results, which are expected early next year.

Right time

As the world switches on to electrification to meet decarbonisation goals, copper demand is set to double from 25m metric tons (MMt) today to about 50 MMt by 2035.

The S&P Global report also noted that there’s no physical scarcity of copper, there’s a questions of whether enough can be mined in the time needed to meet 2050 Net Zero Emissions targets.

Got zinc?

The encouraging results from Horse Well also come hot on the heels of more significant zinc-silver results from in-fill drilling at Cohiba’s Pernatty C, which will help the company develop an exploration model for that project.

This article was developed in collaboration with Cohiba Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.