Coda Minerals has reported strong preliminary copper and silver extraction from Elizabeth Creek samples while testing whether cobalt can add an unmodelled revenue stream. The project’s processing route, water requirements and updated economics remain unresolved as the pre-feasibility study moves towards completion.
- 94.4% average copper and 95.9% silver extraction across four representative Emmie Bluff composites
- 39.7% average cobalt extraction, with current project economics assuming no cobalt revenue
- 1,378-metre hydrogeological drilling programme completed across Windabout and Emmie Bluff
- $10.08 million cash balance at 30 September 2026, with approximately 4.1 quarters of funding
- Chloride leach and flotation remain under assessment ahead of flowsheet selection
Elizabeth Creek’s cobalt value remains outside the base case
Coda Minerals Ltd (ASX:COD) is edging Elizabeth Creek towards its next major development decision with a potentially valuable complication: its preferred processing route is recovering copper and silver strongly, but cobalt remains a separate and unresolved opportunity.
Preliminary laboratory testing across four representative Emmie Bluff composites produced average extraction of 94.4% for copper and 95.9% for silver after 24 hours of chloride leaching. Cobalt extraction averaged 39.7%, reaching more than 50% in two samples and peaking at 51.7%. Coda’s published whole-ore chloride leach economics assume no cobalt revenue, so any future contribution would represent an addition to the current case rather than a result already embedded in it.
The results extend the company’s strong leach recovery tests, which had already supported whole-ore chloride leach as a PFS option. But Coda cautioned that the work was laboratory-scale batch testing, and that cobalt extraction remains variable. The company says further variability, downstream recovery and process modelling are required before final recovery and cost assumptions can be established.
Flotation could recover cobalt from leach residue
Work reported after quarter end adds another piece to the flowsheet puzzle. In a flotation test designated JR012, 83% of the cobalt contained in the leach residue was recovered into a concentrate grading 1.48% cobalt, with the concentrate representing 4% of the residue mass. An earlier test recovered 73% of residue cobalt into a 1.28% cobalt concentrate at a 5.5% mass pull.
Those figures relate to cobalt remaining after leaching, not cobalt in the original ore, and the leach and flotation tests used different samples. They therefore cannot be combined to estimate project-wide recovery. Coda’s preferred concept is to return the flotation concentrate to the chloride leach circuit, but re-leach, locked-cycle, variability and economic testing are still required. Any successful addition would also be expected to require capital expenditure not included in the company’s existing Elizabeth Creek economic studies.
That makes the processing decision more than a simple choice between two established routes. Chloride leach and flotation remain under assessment based on recovery, cost and practicality, with further testing expected during the December quarter.
Water studies move from drilling to pump testing
Coda completed a six-hole, 1,378-metre hydrogeological programme at Windabout and Emmie Bluff after quarter end, comprising three production bores and three monitoring bores. Pump testing is next and is intended to inform mine design, the site water balance, dewatering requirements and environmental approvals.
The company also used data from a 480-square-kilometre LiDAR survey to complete surface-water modelling and advance infrastructure engineering. South Australia’s Department for Energy and Mining gazetted Elizabeth Creek’s Environmental Scoping Report during the quarter, setting the studies, assessments and stakeholder engagement expected to support a future Mining Lease Application.
Funding supports the PFS, but the clock is running
Coda raised $1.975 million before costs through the second tranche of its previously announced $6.7 million placement, issuing 15.38 million shares at $0.13. It ended September with $10.08 million in cash and cash equivalents, while quarterly operating cash outflow was $2.455 million. On the company’s reported measure, that equates to approximately 4.1 quarters of funding at the current rate of outgoings.
The quarter’s $1.78 million exploration and evaluation spend went largely towards hydrogeological drilling, the LiDAR programme, metallurgical testing and technical advisers. Mine design, geotechnical work, tailings studies and environmental programmes are continuing alongside the PFS, with an updated Mineral Resource Estimate expected to follow further mine-planning work.
The immediate test for Coda is whether these parallel workstreams can be converted into a coherent development case. Pump-test results, comminution studies, second-round leach and flotation variability work, and the final flowsheet trade-off will determine how much of the apparent metallurgical upside survives contact with capital costs, water requirements and project design.
Bottom Line?
Coda has improved the technical case for Elizabeth Creek, but cobalt upside will only matter if further testing can connect recovery, flowsheet design and economics without materially inflating capital needs.
Questions in the middle?
- Will cobalt recovery from leach residue be demonstrated in an integrated and repeatable process rather than separate laboratory tests?
- Which processing route will Coda select, and how will longer leach times or additional flotation equipment affect capital and operating costs?
- Will pump testing confirm a workable water supply and allow the PFS to advance towards a Mining Lease Application on the expected timetable?