The company said its drilling, to close down the spacing along the 4km-long copper discovery had delivered a 45m zone of visible copper mineralisation, consisting primarily of chalcocite from 114m, below 80m of cover.

 

Readings with the pXRF tool suggest the upper section of the core grades 0.6%, increasing to 10% chalcocite at the base of the zone.

 

The hole was drilled 250m southwest of an earlier intercept of 10.7m at 1.3% copper and 18 grams per tonne silver.

 

Executive chair Martin Holland said the hole proved that Comet contained high-grade copper, and shared similarities to other discoveries within the Kalahari copper belt that were characterised by broad moderate grades with parasitic folds that trapped mineralisation.

 

He said the drilling showed Cobre's modelling was working well to define promising targets.

 

The drilling is targeting sediment-hosted, structurally controlled mineralisation associated with the contact between oxidised Ngwako Pan Formation red beds and overlying reduced marine sedimentary rocks of the D'Kar Formation on the steeply dipping northern limb of an anticline structure.

 

It expects to find more parasitic folding of lower D'Kar Formation along the length of Comet.

 

Further, lead has been defined at anomalous levels at Comet, which may be a vector to identifying up-dip fluid flow from deeper high-grade parasitic folds, opening up the potential for deeper, high-grade discoveries. 

 

The drilling is Cobre's second burst of good news for the week, with the definition earlier this week of the new Nova target, 10km from Comet.

 

Initial drilling at Nova encountered 93m of cover, sitting over chrysocolla and fine-grained chalcocite in the contact from about 117m.

 

Post-mineralisation faulting appears to have removed the lowermost portion of D'Kar Formation stratigraphy at Nova, suggesting the higher-grade portion of mineralisation may have been displaced locally.

 

Cobre has around 500km of interpreted contact across the Ngami and Kitlanya West projects, with over 50 prospective targets defined. Just two have been drilled. 

 

Cobre's shares, which were 2c one year ago, soared as high as 73c after its initial drilling results in July.

 

The junior's stock was up 35% this afternoon at 20.2c, valuing it at $40 million.