Elizabeth Creek - A Major Copper-Cobalt & IOCG Project

Elizabeth Creek Project

Overview

The Elizabeth Creek Copper Project comprises three adjoining Exploration Licences (EL6141, EL6265 and EL6518) within the Eastern Gawler Craton region of South Australia, some 135km north-west of Port Augusta and 35km south-east of Woomera. The three tenements cover a combined 739km².

The Elizabeth Creek Copper Project is funded under a farm-in and joint venture agreement with Coda Minerals Limited, which is the operator and manager. Torrens owns 30% of the Elizabeth Creek Project, and Coda 70%. Further information can be found on Coda’s website here.

 

Source – Coda Minerals website, October 2021

 

Torrens acquired the licences in 2014, viewing it as a project capable of yielding a large increase in enterprise value by bringing established sediment-hosted copper-cobalt mineral resources and other potential deposits to production.  The Elizabeth Creek Copper Project was also attractive because it was located within Australia’s most productive copper province, with potential for the discovery of both new sedimentary-hosted copper-cobalt deposits and Olympic Dam-style IOCG deposits.

In March 2017, Coda began farming into the project. By April 2021, Coda had expended $8.62M, triggering the joint venture phase of the agreement, with Torrens now a contributing joint venture partner.

Since Coda’s entry into the Project, multiple drilling programs have been completed, JORC-compliant Mineral Resource estimates for the Windabout and MG14 Zambian-style copper-cobalt deposits upgraded, geophysical surveys undertaken, and the deeper Emmie Bluff copper-cobalt deposit drilled for the first time since 2010.

Emmie Bluff Mineral Resource

In December 2021, Torrens and Coda reported to the ASX a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate for Emmie Bluff in accordance with the guidelines of the JORC Code (2012).  The maiden Mineral Resource Estimate was defined following an extensive drilling campaign with key highlights including:

  • Combined Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource of 43Mt @ 1.3% Cu, 470 ppm Co, 11 g/t Ag and 0.15% Zn (1.84% CuEq) reported at a cut-off grade of 1% CuEq.

  • Contained metal of approximately 560kt Cu, 20kt Co, 15.5Moz Ag and 66kt Zn (800kt CuEq)

  • 39 Mt, comprising 90% of the mass and 92% of the metal (contained CuEq), classified in the Indicated Mineral Resource category, with the remainder Inferred

Emmie Bluff is now amongst the largest known sediment hosted copper deposits in Australia. The full Mineral Resource announcement can be found here.

 

Emmie Bluff Mineral Resource Outline

 

Mineral Resource Summary for Emmie Bluff at a 1% Copper Equivalent cut-off

Emmie Bluff Deeps

In mid-2021, drill hole DD21EB0018 was drilled into the Emmie Bluff Deeps gravity anomaly within a zone of increasing density and in an area that was previously untested.

Assays from this first hole provided strong confirmation of IOCG-style copper-gold mineralisation at Emmie Bluff Deeps, with multiple zones intersected, including:

  • 4.69m at 1.01% Cu, 0.17g/t Au and 3.6g/t Ag from 797.45m down-hole

  • 28.14m at 1.21% Cu, 0.37g/t Au and 2.3g/t Ag from 810.79m down-hole, including

    • 4.83m at 2.16% Cu, 0.63g/t Au and 4.3g/t Ag from 816.8m

  • 2.57m at 2.11% Cu, 0.30g/t Au and 13.2g/t Ag from 842.03m down-hole, including

    • 1.45m at 3.44% Cu, 0.42g/t Au and 22.1g/t Ag from 842.77m  

The Emmie Bluff Deeps orebody has now been intersected by over 16 diamond drill holes.  The interpretation has gradually evolved since DD21EB0018 was drilled, with the latest evolution suggesting that Emmie Bluff Deeps is a series of 2 or more stacked, laterally extensive stratiform horizontal copper-gold rich lodes. 

These copper-gold bearing lodes lie relatively flat and partially overlap, likely due to fault thickening, with mineralisation apparently controlled by a combination of structural and sedimentological factors. Copper and gold bearing fluids appear to have been introduced into the system from a deeper structure, potentially related to a major structure encountered in two holes.

In a general sense, the drilling to date has shown the following sequence running west to east:

  • a chalcopyrite dominated sequence in the west

  • a bornite dominated sequence in the middle

  • another chalcopyrite dominated sequence as you move east, and finally

  • a pyrite/chalcopyrite dominated sequence in the far east

 

Interpreted chalcopyrite and bornite prospectivity envelopes

Emmie Bluff 3D Schematic Interpretation

 
 

Emmie Bluff Deeps schematic long section, looking northeast

 

The unfolding scenario at Elizabeth Creek is of a major copper project unique in hosting both sedimentary-hosted (Zambian-style) copper-cobalt mineralisation and copper-gold IOCG mineralisation, located in the heart of Australia’s major copper-producing region.

Recent announcements by BHP of high grade IOCG copper-gold mineralisation at Oak Dam West, 15km north-east of Emmie Bluff, and the development of OZ Minerals Ltd’s Carrapateena copper-gold deposit, 50km to the north-east, have encouraged the reinvigoration of IOCG exploration at Elizabeth Creek.

Coda Minerals Joint Venture

The Elizabeth Creek Copper Project is operated under a farm-in and joint venture agreement which commenced in March 2017, with the joint venture phase commencing in April 2021. Coda holds the option to purchase an additional 5% for $1.5M, potentially leaving Torrens with a 25% operating interest.

All project work is being overseen by a joint venture management committee, which meets monthly. Further information can be found on Coda’s website here.

Recent project announcements by Coda can be seen here.