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ELIZABETH CREEK FACT SHEET

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The Elizabeth Creek Copper Cobalt Project is centred approximately 30 km south-east of Woomera and 135 km north-west of Port Augusta in South Australia.

The project currently covers 701 km2 in the Olympic Dam Copper Province, Australia’s most productive copper belt. The project is located 100 km south of BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam copper-gold-uranium mine and 50 km west of OZ Minerals’ Carrapateena copper-gold project.

The project mining centre lies 10 km off the sealed Stuart Highway and is accessed by established unsealed roads. Established access to electrical grid power and scheme water is available in the area. The Adelaide to Perth/Darwin railway runs parallel to the Stuart Highway. Additionally, regular air services are available at Roxby Downs and Port Augusta, and a serviceable airstrip for light aircraft is located on site. Accommodation is available at Woomera.

The MG14 and Windabout copper-cobalt deposits at Elizabeth Creek, are hosted by flat-lying undeformed sedimentary rocks of Late Proterozoic Age, deposited on the Stuart Shelf. These platform sediments are referred to as the ‘Cover Sequence’ and unconformably overlie complexly deformed and metamorphosed igneous rocks of the eastern margin of the Archaean Gawler Craton.

The copper-cobalt-silver mineral deposits are composed of sediment-hosted fine-grained sulphides. Copper is primarily hosted as bornite and chalcocite, with chalcopyritre and covellite, with Cobalt is primarily in the form of carrolite.

The main mineralisation occurs as well-defined stratabound zones at the upper and lower contacts of the dolomitic shales and arenites of the host Tapley Hill Formation (THF). The THF appears to have been deposited in shallow basin-like structures elongated along a north-west to south-east trend. Elevated base metal values (copper, lead and zinc) occur throughout the unit, but large-scale economic deposits are rare outside of the Elizabeth Creek area.

The Emmie Bluff prospect in the north of the Elizabeth Creek project area is comprised of the same style of Tapley hosted Cu-Co-Ag mineralisation style as is found at MG14 and Windabout. Emmie Bluff is an underground target, with the top of mineralisation sitting at approximately 400m.

Much like the other deposits, the host rock is largely flat lying, extending over an area of roughly 3km by 2km, with mineralisation split into an upper and lower lode at the Tapley Hill’s contact horizons.

The company has recently defined a significant JORC 2012 compliant maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) at Emmie Bluff, demonstrating the enormous scale of the deposit, which is one of the largest known of its type in Australia.

The MG14 deposit is a concealed, flat lying body of disseminated copper sulphide mineralisation at 25m depth. It is oriented east-west and is approximately 1,400 m long by 400 m wide with a varying thickness between 3 to 8 m. A JORC 2012 compliant resource was estimated by T. Callaghan in January 2018 with a cut-off grade of 0.5% Cu equivalent.

The Windabout deposit is similar in style to MG14 with copper sulphide mineralisation dipping approximately 5° to the north-east and varying in depth from 55m to 80m. The deposit is elongated east-west and is approximately 2,000 m long by 1,000m wide with varying thickness between 3 to 8 metres. A JORC 2012 compliant resource was estimated by T. Callaghan in January 2018 with a cut-off grade of 0.5% Cu equivalent.

The mineralisation at Cattle Grid South is hosted in sandstone breccia, a third style of sediment-hosted copper mineralisation, distinct from the IOCG (Emmie IOCG) and Zambian-style mineralisation (Emmie Bluff, MG14, Windabout) that also occurs at Elizabeth Creek, and which is comparable to historically mined mineralisation at the historical Mount Gunson mining centre.

Mineralisation typically commences at between 30 and 40m below the surface, and consists of chalcocite and bornite with associated chalcopyrite, sphalerite, pyrite and other less common sulphides.

This report was prepared in accordance with the 2012 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’ (“JORC Code”) by Tim Callaghan, who is a Member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (“AusIMM”), has a minimum of five years’ experience in the estimation and assessment and evaluation of Mineral Resources of this style and is the competent Person as defined in the JORC Code. This information accurately summarises and fairly reports his estimations and he has consented to the resource report in the form and context it appears.

The MG14 and Windabout Mineral Resource at the Elizabeth Creek Copper-Cobalt Project has been estimated by Mr Tim Callaghan, an external consultant, and is reported under the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (see Coda Minerals ASX announcement 26 October 2020 titled:

The information in this statement that relates to the Mineral Resource estimates for the Cattle Grid South deposit is based on work done by Dr Michael Cunningham of SRK Consulting (Australasia) Pty Ltd (SRK),

Dr Cunningham is a Member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration, and to the activity he is undertaking, to qualify as a Competent Person in terms of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (JORC Code, 2012) (see Coda Minerals ASX announcement 3 July 2024 titled:

The study proposes a two-stage approach to mining and processing at Elizabeth Creek. Stage 1 will involve open-pit mining using conventional drill and blast mining at MG14, with the mineralisation being trucked to a 3 MTPA flotation plant at Emmie Bluff, 40km to the north. The resultant concentrate will be sold into the global market to generate early revenue while preparations for the next stage are underway.

These preparations will include pre-strip of the Windabout deposit, development of a mining decline at Emmie Bluff and the construction of a hydrometallurgical processing plant as an add-on for the flotation plant.

Stage 2 will involve production from the Windabout pit, as well as from the Emmie Bluff underground. Mining at Emmie Bluff will use innovative mechanical cutting via continuous miners and pillar recovery via grout-pack support to maximise extraction and minimise overall mining costs.

Following flotation concentration, mineralisation from Emmie Bluff and Windabout will be fed through the proposed Albion ProcessTM based hydrometallurgical plant. At steady state, this plant is expected to produce nearly 26,700 tpa of copper cathode, 1,300 tpa of cobalt as battery-grade cobalt sulphate, 1.13 Moz of silver dore and 3,780 tpa of zinc as zinc carbonate.

The project has excellent access to established infrastructure, with the fully sealed Stuart Highway and the Adelaide to Perth/Darwin railway passing directly through the project area. The Carrapateena Western Access Road, which the company has the right to access under prior agreements, also passes directly between the MG14 and Windabout deposits.

The Scoping Study assumes access to power from the South Australian grid via substations located immediately adjacent to the project. The company has held preliminary talks with local power providers to confirm the availability of sufficient power. The Scoping Study calls for a 12 hole borefield to be established to provide water  for the flotation plant, and the company will pursue access to alternate water sources, such as the proposed Northern Water pipeline, as they become available.

The project has excellent ESG credentials, and aims to be one of the greenest sources of Copper and Cobalt worldwide. South Australia’s electricity grid has one of the highest penetrations of renewables worldwide, with the percentage set to increase in coming years. Preliminary environmental and heritage surveys have not indicated any major expected impacts, and Coda continues to develop strong and positive relationships with local stakeholders.

South Australia is ranked 3rd in the Fraser Institute’s Policy Perception Index. Coda anticipates a straightforward permitting process, and has commenced early stage, long-lead time data collection to feed in to its environmental approvals.

In 2021, Coda drilled its first deep drillhole into the Emmie IOCG prospect, an extensive gravity  anomaly with historical haematite and low grade copper and gold anomalism known from historical drilling. Emmie IOCG is a geologically distinct project compared with Coda’s other deposits, being of the Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) type, similar to other major mines in the region such as Carrapateena and Olympic Dam.

The company’s initial drillhole encountered 200m of intensely haematite altered sediments and granites, including sulphide mineralisation over a length of approximately 50m, and 35m @ >1% Cu. This represented the best IOCG intercept at the Emmie Bluff prospect and confirmed the presence of a significant accumulation of ore-grade copper at the prospect.

Coda followed up this initial success with additional drilling, ultimately drilling nine parent holes and numerous wedges to begin to delineate a major IOCG system. Better intersections included:

After this drilling campaign with detailed geophysical survey and interpretations.

Emmie IOCG is made up of multiple laterally extensive stratiform lenses of high grade mineralisation radiating out from a pair of WNW dipping structures.

Based on the current geological model, pregnant fluid moved up these structures in multiple mineralising pulses at relatively low pressure until a granitic thrust sheet prevented upward migration, forcing fluid seepage into preferentially permeable strata. Which facilitated fluid flow and formed the distinctive tabular mineralised bodies as well as the lateral zonation of sulphides.

The deposit is largely open along strike to the north and south, and represents a drill-ready growth project for the broader Elizabeth Creek Copper Project.

This webpage contains ‘forward-looking information’ that is based on the Company’s expectations, estimates and projections as of the date on which the statements were made. This forward-looking information includes, among other things, statements with respect to the Company’s business strategy, plans, development, objectives, performance, outlook, growth, cash flow, projections, targets and expectations, mineral reserves and resources, results of exploration and related expenses. Generally, this forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as ‘outlook’, ‘anticipate’, ‘project’, ‘target’, ‘potential’, ‘likely’, ‘believe’, ‘estimate’, ‘expect’, ‘intend’, ‘may’, ‘would’, ‘could’, ‘should’, ‘scheduled’, ‘will’, ‘plan’, ‘forecast’, ‘evolve’ and similar expressions. Persons reading this announcement are cautioned that such statements are only predictions, and that the Company’s actual future results or performance may be materially different. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information.

The information in this statement that relates to the Mineral Resource Estimate is based on work done by Dr Michael Cunningham of Sonny Consulting Services Pty Ltd. Dr Cunningham is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and has sufficient relevant experience to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activities undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. This information accurately summarises and fairly reports his estimations and he has consented to the resource report in the form and context it appears.

The Emmie Bluff Mineral Resource at the Elizabeth Creek Copper-Cobalt Project has been estimated by Dr Michael Cunningham, an external consultant, and is reported under the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (see Coda Minerals ASX announcement 30 January 2024 titled: 

Lifetime production for the project is expected to be:

Resulting in net revenue of over $7.26 billion and a net free cash flow of $2.40 billion. Anticipated AISC has been estimated at US $2.15/lb Cu.

The project has an estimated Net Present Value (Discount Rate 7%, Pre-Tax) of $1.3B and an Internal Rate of Return of 39%.

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