Cohiba (ASX:CHK) gears up for more drilling after striking zinc

Significant zinc results from Cohiba Minerals’ Pernatty C project have further boosted its confidence and exploration efforts in the mineral-rich Gawler Craton region.

The company will now develop an exploration model demonstrating the potential feasibility to exploit the discovery with additional drilling.

Cohiba Minerals (ASX:CHK) drilled holes at the tenement between last December and March this year, with the program co-funded by the South Australian Department for Energy and Mining as part of its Accelerated Discovery Initiative program.

Best intersections include: 0.95m at 2.2% zinc from 735.2m; 0.8m at 8.6% zinc, 1.9% lead and 40.1 grams per tonne (g/t) of silver from 865m and 1.3m at 5.9% zinc from 876.5m.

The drill program tested for Zambian Copper Belt (ZCB) sediment hosted mineralisation and continued to drill the Wallaroo Group basement for Copper Skarn or distal IOCG (Iron Ore Copper Gold) mineralisation.

Pernatty C is only 40km south of Oz Mineral’s Carrapateena IOCG copper mine, 13km southeast of the historic Mt Gunson copper mine with mineralisation located at the base of the Whyalla Formation cover sequence, and 24 km northwest of the Punt Hill copper skarn area.

CEO Andrew Graham says Cohiba recognises the challenges of the depth to basement (the rocks below a sedimentary platform or cover).

“However we believe that given the strong metal grades, an increase in vein stockwork intensity and continuity over thickness and strike length would be sufficient to create a significant deposit,” he said.

“Our primary focus at Pernatty C is the shallower, ZCB-style mineralisation and we’re very keen to complete the drilling to build our understanding of the geology.”

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

Historic production from the Mt Gunson copper-cobalt-silver resource 10km to the west was 150,000 tonnes of copper and 2.1 million ounces of silver at an average copper grade of 2.44%.

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

The results come after a couple of months the company’s directors and investors boosted its cash balance by nearly $1 million through the conversion of options.

Executive chairman Mordechai Benedikt says he picked up more shares in the company due to the “mega potential” for another discovery like BHP’s Olympic Dam in South Australia’s Gawler Craton.

Cohiba is having its busiest year yet with drilling under way at three projects in the region.

Those include Horse Well where the company unearthed on top grades of up to 12.15% copper, 2.62g/t gold and 42.5g/t silver as well as its Warriner Creek project.

Detail of PSDDH01 cross-section showing locations of significant intersections and target zone for further potential mineralisation.

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.

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