Special Report: Cohiba Minerals has passed the expenditure milestone to earn 80% of the Olympic Domain tenements in South Australia’s Gawler Craton, where it is currently drilling a target that bears strong similarities to the giant Olympic Dam copper-gold-uranium system in the same region.

Under the farm-in agreement signed with Olympic Domain Pty Ltd in March 2018, Cohiba (ASX:CHK) had until March next year to spend more than $1.5 million on the 831km2 of ground that makes up the Olympic Domain Project to lift its interest from 51% to 80%.

But it was clear that the drilling program underway at the Horse Well prospect, which is expected to comprise as many as four deep diamond holes, would take the company past that milestone well ahead of time.

Cohiba said this morning that it had informed Olympic Domain of that fact and was awaiting formal acknowledgement before lodging the official documentation with the SA Department of Energy and Mining.

“We have worked very hard to achieve this milestone and ensured that funds have been utilised in the most effective manner,” Cohiba chief executive Andrew Graham said.

Contractor DRC Drilling recently completed the first hole at Horse Well and is readying to move its rig to the location of the second hole, where the pad and sump have already been prepared.

Horse Well borders BHP’s Oak Dam West project, where drilling in 2017 returned a staggering intercept of 425.7m at 3.04% copper, 0.59 g/t gold, 346ppm uranium and 6.03 g/t silver, sparking a share price run for explorers with ground in the area.

The broader Olympic Domain tenements lie between two of South Australia’s biggest and best mines, BHP’s giant Olympic Dam copper-gold-uranium operation and OZ Minerals’ Carrapateena copper-gold operation, which began production in December last year.

Comprehensive geophysical analysis of Horse Well conducted by Cohiba and its consultants indicates the presence of a major “feeder” system believed to be associated with iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) mineralisation that is comparable in size to the Olympic Dam feeder system.

It is this large geophysical anomaly that the company is testing with current drilling, with first assay results still a few weeks away.

Following the Horse Well drilling, Cohiba will turn its attention to the Pernatty C prospect to the south, which represents a “compelling target for shallow, sedimentary-hosted copper”, according to the company.

Pernatty C is located 10km west of the Mt Gunson copper-cobalt-silver mine, which produced 150,000 tonnes of copper and 2.1 million ounces of silver at an average copper grade of 2.44%, and to the south west of Carrapateena.

Cohiba raised $2.29 million to fund planned drilling through a strongly backed share placement to professional and sophisticated investors at the end of August. The company’s directors agreed to tip in for another $290,000 of shares.

 

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

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

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