Canadian copper explorer Kodiak Copper TSXV:KDK has updated the market on the completion of its 2020 drill program at its 100%-owned MPD property in British Columbia. This year it has been focusing on a high grade central core within a broader, well-developed copper-gold porphyry system at what it is calling the Gate Zone.
We started following Kodiak Copper back in April. At the time the mining stock was trading at CAD 0.24. Shares are now trading at CAD 1.35 (at time of writing). The stock has been an excellent performer in 2020. The MPD property consisted of nearly 10,000 hectares close to several operating mines in the southern Quesnal Trough. This is British Columbia’ss primary gold-copper producing belt.
Kodiak Copper completed almost 7000 metres of drilling in 2020, with all the holes drilled to date in the MPD intersecting prospective, sulphide-bearing, strongly altered porphyritic host rocks. These include all drill holes with pending results.
Fully-funded, significant drill program planned for next year
The miner says it will be continuing to explore the MPD property early in 2021 with a fully-funded, significantly larger program. Plans include up to 30,000 metres of drilling in several target areas, as well as further geophysical and geochemical surveying, propsecting and geo-technical studies. Assay results for four holes have been released to date. Results for the last batch of five holes drilled in 2020 are expected in January 2021.
Data to date point to what is being hailed as the best early stage copper-gold intervals reported from southern British Columbia. This includes broad intervals of mineralisation with grades higher than typically mined by local producers.
The early results were sound enough to bring in Teck Resources [TSX:TECKa], which invested in Kodiak Copper to the tune of C$8m, becoming a strategic shareholder.
“We are very encouraged by the rapid progress we have made at MPD in such a short period of time,” said Claudia Tornquist, President and CEO of Kodiak Copper. “It has been less than a year since we first reported results from our maiden drill program and with only twelve holes drilled by Kodiak to date, results continue to exceed all expectations. The significant copper-gold discovery at the Gate Zone, followed by a strategic investment by Teck Resources have been a game changer for the company.”
Strong cash position
Going into 2021, Kodiak Copper looks like it is in a great position to follow up on its early success this year, with a fully-funded work program for MPD and a strong cash position of over C$14m. On the cards for next year are 30,000 metres of drilling with one drill already scheduled in for early in the New Year. A property-wide ZTEM airborne geophysical survey will also be carried out across the entire property, as well as new drilling, historic soil surveys and ground geophysics. This should provide further insight into the district-scale controls of mineralisation at the property. It has helped to also highlight several priority target areas for 2021.
Currently only 125 metres of the approximately one kilometre long copper-in-soil anomaly at the Gate Zone has been drilled. This geochemical feature is central to a large, regional magnetic low with three three kilometres of strike length. Drilling in 2021 will prioritise sites along the Gate trend, using systematic, step-out drilling to expand the central high-grade zone and the larger copper-gold mineralised envelope.
