Cohiba Minerals kicks-off accelerated exploration at Olympic Domain following BHP’s massive copper discovery

Cohiba Minerals (ASX: CHK) is taking advantage of the nearology phenomenon as it announces accelerated exploration at its Olympic Domain project, following major miner BHP’s (ASX: BHP) making a major copper find in the region where it pulled out of the ground one the thickest highest-grade copper intersections seen in many years.

BHP’s discovery, which included a 425.7m intersection grading 3.04% copper 0.59 grams per tonne gold, 346 parts per million uranium and 6.03g/t silver, was in a tenement adjacent to Cohiba’s in South Australia’s Olympic iron-oxide, copper, gold (IOCG) province.

This morning, Cohiba stated it would target the IOCG trend from BHP’s discovery through to its Horse Well exploration licence.

“This discovery being just 2km to the east of our ground is very exciting for Cohiba as it emphasises the prospectivity of our Olympic Domain project,” Cohiba executive director Mordechai Benedikt said.

“Although we couldn’t have predicted such great results, nevertheless its proximity to BHP Olympic Dam and the Carrapateena (OZ Minerals) mine was a main consideration why the company pursued this transaction in the first instance,” Mr Benedikt added.

In readiness for an accelerated exploration program, Cohiba will fast-track permitting and has begun planning the drilling.

The company is also in a “strong financial position” to kick-off the campaign.

Horse Well is about 45km south of BHP’s world-class Olympic Dam operation.

Cohiba said its own project has shown similar anomalies to BHP’s adjacent discovery and Cohiba’s anomaly across Horse Well will be the focus in upcoming exploration.

Meanwhile, historic reconnaissance sampling across the project’s Peninsular licence in the region has revealed elevated copper and lead levels.

“We are convinced with BHP’s results, this will only grow stronger and strengthen Cohiba’s position for our shareholders,” Mr Benedikt said.

News of Cohiba’s impending drilling campaign and the project’s proximity to BHP’s discovery drove Cohiba’s share price up 70% in early morning trade to reach $0.017.

More than 86 million shares changed hands within an hour of market open.