Element of surprise boosts Pernatty C potential

A detailed technical review of results from Cohiba Minerals’ Pernatty C Project has shown there’s good potential for a significant zinc deposit within the mineral-rich Gawler Craton, famous for its world-class copper deposits.

The review of assays and re-logging core has led to the identification of a major mineralising structure named the Giles Waterhole Fault.

Zinc grades from the reviewed drill hole PSDDH01 are within economically acceptable ranges and Cohiba Minerals (ASX:CHK) says it will now work to investigate the size of the mineralised system.

Indications are that hole PSDDH01 has intersected part of a larger system, with the possibility that it’s peripheral to a significant deposit.

Cohiba already has targets to follow up on, generated by modelling of the geophysical magnetic anomaly.

Pernatty C lies along strike of the Punt Hill area, which includes Monax Mining (ASX:MOX) best drill intercept of 122m at 0.47% copper, 0.38% zinc, 6.6g/t silver and 0.1g/t gold in hole at the Groundhog Prospect.

It is conceivable that intense geological alteration at Punt Hill has mobilised zinc, which has then been deposited at the margins of the alteration at Pernatty C.

Executive Director and CEO, Mr Andrew Graham said: “The detailed technical review has further reinforced our belief that the Pernatty C Project may be host to a significant zinc deposit.
“The fact that the geophysical targets were not intersected during the first phase of drilling has provided impetus to fully investigate this area and to understand what type of depositional environment we are dealing with.

“Whilst the initial results at PSDDH01 came as somewhat of a surprise it should be recognised that intersecting mineralisation of this nature on an early-stage exploration play is a major achievement.”

Revving up the drills

Today’s news follows significant zinc and zinc-silver results from Pernatty C last December and July. These are now helping the company develop an exploration model for the project.

Cohiba drilled the earlier holes at Pernatty C with support from the South Australian Department for Energy and Mining as part of its Accelerated Discovery Initiative program.

It’s also upping exploration efforts at its copper projects near BHP’s (ASX:BHP) Olympic Dam and Oak Dam, plus OZ Minerals’ (ASX:OZL) $1 billion Carrapateena copper mine that attracted the Big Australian’s takeover bid.

Don’t forget the zinc

Not as famous as some of the other future-facing elements, zinc is already the fourth most widely consumed base metal across the globe.

It’s traditionally been used in alloys, and the construction of cars, electrical and hardware products.

However the bluish-silver metal is now attracting investor interest due to its use in clean energy products, such as zinc-based batteries for electric vehicles, and coatings to prevent rust in solar panels and wind turbines.

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.