Copper exploration firm Kodiak Copper Corp (CVE:KDK) says it is about to start drilling at its MPD project in British Columbia. It says it will be expanding its drilling activity in the area, which sits in what is known at the Quesnel Trough.
The site represents a large and contiguous area within a rich copper and gold producing belt. Kodiak Copper carried out an initial Phase 1 drill program in the area last year in what is called the Gate Zone. CEO Claudia Tornquist has argued that previous exploration on the property was carried out at a much shallower level.
Kodiak Copper share price up on exploration news
The Armchair Trader first started covering Kodiak Copper on 23 April. The share price has since risen from CAD 0.24 to current price of CAD 0.54. At the time we thought it represented a good opportunity for further exploration of a well-located property that has been looked at separately from various different angles, but never surveyed in its entirety like this before.
Kodiak Copper has made earlier discoveries of 0.5% copper and 0.2 g/ton gold at a depth of 102 metres. ZTEM survey results have demonstrated a high grade copper interval within a large resistivity anomaly that Kodiak reckons could indicate a substantial porphyry copper mineralization centre.
Kodiak will also be drilling in the Dillard area of the project. It will be prioritising high grade gold trends that were uncovered in the early 1990s at the eastern edge of the property. These remained unexplored, and Tornquist says she is keen to follow these up.
“The recent strong copper price rally and a bullish gold market present a great backdrop for our upcoming Phase II drill program at MPD,” Tornquist said. “We were thrilled when the new ZTEM results showed that this high grade copper interval was located within a large resistivity anomaly that may indicate a substantial porphyry copper mineralisation centre.”
MPD is a large, recently consolidated land package in British Columbia, covering nearly 80 square kilometres. It has easy access to roads, power, water and labour. The ground was evaluated and selected by Chris Taylor, founder and chairman of Kodiak and CEO of its sister company, Great Bear Resources.
Historic exploration work carried out at MPD since the early 1960s has consisted of 129 drill holes, focused mainly on shallow mineralisations. Kodiak Copper has now completed a ZTEM airborne geophysical survey that has provided the first set of geophysical data down to a depth of 1000 metres. This will be used to prioritise drill targets, in combination with copper-gold results from historic soil surveys.
As for the eastern claims in the Dillard East area, these were previously explored by Placer Dome Inc in the early 1990s and Fjordland Exploration Inc betweeen 2011 and 2015. Several years of work confirmed a similar geological setting to the adjacent Elk Gold mine. Kodiak says it believes this site has comparable potential to host a high grade gold vein deposit.
