Kodiak Copper Corp (CVE:KDK) (OTCMKTS:KDKCF) (FRA:5DD1) has expanded its MPD project in Southern British Columbia to 14,716 hectares (ha) by acquiring all of the contiguous Axe copper-gold property, which has the potential to host large-scale copper-gold porphyry mineralization.
Axe was purchased from Orogen Royalties (CVE:OGN) (OTCMKTS:EMRRF) (FRA:5EV), spans 4,980 ha, and comprises four drill-proven copper-gold porphyry centres with potential for additional targets similar to Kodiak's Gate zone discovery.
READ: Kodiak Copper resumes drilling program at MPD project
Historic work has focused on the west side of Axe, with most discoveries made by near surface drilling less than 300 metres (m) deep, noted Claudia Tornquist, CEO of Kodiak.
"Kodiak believes there is considerable exploration upside at depth, and in underexplored areas on the property, particularly the 1516 Zone. We look forward to unlocking this excellent potential with a view to potentially making another transformative discovery," she said.
The company's chairman Chris Taylor added: "The unprecedented positive market conditions for copper make Kodiak's control of an easily accessed copper-gold region within the prolific Quesnel Belt a compelling opportunity for our shareholders."
Axe hosts the West, Adit, Mid, and South zones, where porphyry copper-gold mineralization has been found within an extensive copper-gold porphyry system with a 17 square kilometre (sq km) footprint.
Historic drilling from 264 holes dates back to the 1960s - the vast majority of which were shallow percussion/reverse circulation (RC) holes.
Historic results from the "West Zone" include an intercept of 124m of 0.38% copper and 0.22 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, including 10.5m of 1.55% copper and 0.94 g/t gold
Like Gate at MPD, the project's 1516 zone is a copper, gold, molybdenum in soil anomaly. It measures 2,200m by 400m and is open.
For Axe, Kodiak will pay 950,000 of its shares upon closing the deal and provide a 2% net smelter returns (NSR) royalty on Axe, of which 0.5% may be purchased back by Kodiak for C$2 million.
There is also a cash payment equivalent to the value of 75,000 Orogen shares up to a maximum of C$50,000 upon the completion of 5,000m of drilling at the project and cash, equivalent to 200,000 Orogen shares, up to a maximum of C$150,000 upon the announcement of a measured or indicated mineral resource of at least 500,000,000 tonnes at a grade of at least 0.40% copper-equivalent.
Also, as consideration, Kodiak must pay cash equivalent to the value of 250,000 Orogen shares up to a maximum of C$200,000 upon the completion of a feasibility study.
The MPD project is Kodiak's most advanced asset, where it made a discovery of high-grade mineralization within a wide mineralized envelope in 2020.
Kodiak also holds the Mohave copper-molybdenum-silver porphyry project in Arizona, US, near the world-class Bagdad mine.
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com