Cohiba goes deep for the copper riches next door to BHP

Cohiba is kicking off fresh drilling at its Horse Well and Pernatty C prospects in its ongoing hunt for a big iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) discovery in the same neighbourhood as mining heavyweight BHP.

Cohiba Minerals (ASX:CHK) is drilling an additional deep hole at its Horse Well prospect in South Australia’s prolific Gawler Craton, where the company has been aggressively drilling in pursuit of a new major IOCG find.

The news got the market going on Wednesday morning, pushing shares up nearly 12% to an intra-day peak of 1.9c.

Cohiba Minerals (ASX:CHK) share price chart

Cohiba is undertaking a multi-million-dollar exploration campaign after drilling at its Horse Well prospect in March encountered rock types typical of an IOCG environment and returned high grades of up to 12.15 per cent copper.

The company has uncovered multiple targets in close proximity to BHP’s (ASX:BHP) giant Olympic Dam mine and OZ Minerals’ (ASX:OZL) $1bn Carrapateena copper-gold mine.

To accelerate a potential IOCG discovery, Cohiba has engaged the services of IOCG experts to thoroughly investigate the drill core from the Horse Well area. This is crucial to helping the company understand how close it is to this type of mineralisation.

It has already assisted Cohiba in identifying new spots to drill and leading it to the drilling of the additional deep hole at the same location as an earlier drill hole.

Cohiba plans to drill a further 16,800m across 12 holes at Horse Well.

“The effectiveness of our subject matter experts (SME) cannot be underestimated as they have provided extensive insights into the mineralogy, petrology, stratigraphy and structure of the areas we are actively exploring,” managing director Andrew Graham said.

“Their work has enabled Cohiba to define more accurately those areas of interest for follow-up work and has been the main driver behind an additional drill hole at HWDD04.

“Cohiba continues to maintain an exceptional portfolio of tenements within the Gawler Craton and is committed to fully exploring their potential.”

Pernatty C is also next in line to be drilled after the company secured a drilling contractor.

While Cohiba is also targeting IOCG-style mineralisation at Pernatty C, the primary focus will be on the shallower, Zambian copper belt (ZCB)-style mineralisation.

The Pernatty C area is considered to be prospective for stratabound, copper-cobalt-silver mineralisation consistent with the nearby Mt Gunson mining area directly to the west.

These historic deposits have, more recently, been considered as analogous to the extensive copper deposits found in the ZCB and exploration efforts from neighbouring companies are heavily focused in this area.

The company is also in the process of pinpointing additional target areas within the Pernatty C area to undertake further drilling.

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.