Cobra Confirms Porphyry Indicators at Blue Rose With 1.01% Copper Interval

Cobra Resources has reported diamond drilling results from beneath the shallow Blue Rose copper-gold discovery at its Manna Hill Copper Project in South Australia, including 23 meters at 0.63% copper from 186 meters depth with a higher-grade core of 12.4 meters at 1.01% copper. Molybdenum mineralization and hydrothermal breccias in the same holes support a larger porphyry system below the known skarn, with mineralization now defined beyond 300 meters and open at depth. Assays from 2 further holes are pending, and up to 6,000 meters of follow-up drilling across 4 prospects is underway.

Company Overview

Cobra Resources (LSE: COBR) is a South Australian mineral exploration and development company advancing the Wudinna Rare Earth Project and the Manna Hill Copper Project. Manna Hill lies in the Nackara Arc, a copper-gold province where multiple underexplored prospects offer potential for shallow skarn mineralization and deeper porphyry discoveries.

Diamond Drilling Confirms Porphyry Indicators at Blue Rose

Blue Rose began as a shallow skarn discovery, a style of copper-gold mineralization formed where hot fluids react with surrounding rock. Earlier reverse circulation (RC) drilling returned standout intersections including 47 meters at 2.2% copper from 11 meters depth and 62 meters at 1.0% copper from 62 meters depth. Cobra then drilled 4 diamond holes totaling 1,465 meters to test geophysical and geological indicators for a deeper porphyry source, the larger intrusion-related system that can feed a skarn.

Results from 2 of the 4 holes returned solid copper-gold intersections. One hole returned 23 meters at 0.63% copper and 0.09 grams per metric ton (g/t) gold from 186 meters depth, including 12.4 meters at 1.01% copper and 0.13 g/t gold. The other returned 36 meters at 0.39% copper and 0.05 g/t gold from 232 meters depth, including 10 meters at 0.99% copper, 0.13 g/t gold and 0.02% molybdenum.

Management puts collective mineralization at 50 meters at 0.5% copper in the first of these holes and 80 meters at 0.30% copper in the second. Mineralized intervals extend beyond 300 meters downhole in both holes and remain open at depth.

Molybdenum Gives Cobra a Vector Toward the Source

The deepest intervals returned molybdenum, which Cobra groups with the copper-gold intersections and hydrothermal breccias as features typical of the upper parts of a porphyry system. One hole returned 16.9 meters at 0.08% molybdenum from 335.5 meters depth, including 1.1 meters at 0.48% molybdenum, within strongly altered wall rock in contact with a hydrothermal breccia, a body of broken rock cemented by mineral-bearing fluids.

Molybdenum is a primary pathfinder for porphyry vectoring, meaning it guides drilling toward the center of the system. It generally occurs closer to the potassic alteration zone, which becomes more enriched in metals and can host higher-grade copper. Cobra reads the high molybdenum grades and their direct association with a large hydrothermal breccia as evidence of a much larger mineral system, and management adds that the metal also supports economics.

Next Steps

Assays from select intervals of the 2 remaining diamond holes are pending, along with petrology and petrophysical testwork on all 4 holes. Up to 6,000 meters of slimline RC drilling in 52 holes is now underway across 4 prospects, targeting strike extensions at Blue Rose and testing the Netley Hill and Anabama prospects.

Managing Director of Cobra Resources, Rupert Verco, ties the depth extension to the scale test now underway.

"Results add to the scale potential of Blue Rose, extending the depth of mineralisation beyond 300m. The commencement of RC drilling is the next step in defining the scale, targeting both shallow skarn and recognised porphyry systems. Drilling is expected to continue over the next six weeks with results to follow."

With a molybdenum vector in hand and 52 RC holes underway, Cobra now has a drilled path from the shallow Blue Rose skarn toward a porphyry-scale copper target.