CuDeco released the results of three more drill holes this morning and says a fourth drill hole completed yesterday contained 56m of sulphide mineralisation.
Based on these four holes, CuDeco said the “inferred strike length indicated from drilling is approximately 950m with zero extrapolation”
When the company delivered the 59Mt resource for Las Minerale, it covered a strike length of 950m to a depth of 375m. Drilling had only covered an area of 600m to a depth of 250m and the company had “extrapolated” extensions to make up the resource.
After catching the attentions of the Australian Stock Exchange, CuDeco was compelled to revise the resource downwards to its current level of 25Mt grading 1.57% copper, 818 parts per million cobalt and 0.2 gram per tonne gold.
MiningNews.net was unable to contact CuDeco chairman Wayne McCrae for his comment on the strike length upgrade.
Fat Prophets analyst Gavin Wendt told MiningNews.net it now appears the company has traced copper mineralisation over the originally stated 950m strike length.
“The key, though … in my mind is finding out whether it is entirely continuous because there are one or two spots in my mind … with holes completed recently but where we haven’t received the results of those holes,” Wendt said.
“I notice there are some wide intercepts there where the grade drops away a little bit but then they’ve got some other areas where the grade is high but they tend to be narrower intercepts.
“I guess it’s going to be a matter of putting it all together.”
Wendt said he was reluctant to postulate as to where the resource might be placed after the last couple of months of drilling but said he thought it would be in the vicinity of 40Mt.
He said he thought it was likely CuDeco would eventually get the Las Minerale resource up to the original 59Mt mark in full JORC compliance.
“If they keep drilling, they might well get to [59Mt],” Wendt said.
“The critical things are going to be continuity and overall grade that will determine the robustness of the project and also metallurgy, because so far I don’t think we’ve seen any comments with regards to metallurgical test work or anything like that,” Wendt said.
CuDeco has claimed cobalt credits will add to the value of the project and Wendt said question marks still remain as to whether the cobalt can actually be extracted.
The company handed down the 59Mt resource in late June when it was called Australian Mining Investments. The story received national media attention when a newspaper published an article claiming the release of an analysts report valuing the company at $25 per share was imminent.
With suggestions the project could be the most important mineral discovery in Australia for the last 25 years and the world’s biggest copper mine being bandied around, the share price took off, peaking at $10 before the ASX stepped in to query the resource estimate.
Trading was halted, the resource slashed and the credibility of both the company and its chairman were questioned.
“So probably we’re getting to a stage now where they were a few months ago in terms of actually being able to back up their statements with drill data, however, there’s probably enough evidence at this stage to probably support the company’s share price around about these levels,” Wendt said.
Shares in CuDeco hit a high of $3.42 in morning trade but settled to be trading up 23c (7.8%) at $3.19 just after midday.
