Cobre firing up the diamond rigs at Ngami to conduct infill drill run alongside geochem study

A week after Cobre Limited (ASX:CBE) retrieved thick cores from underground marbled with blue copper mineralisation visible to the naked eye, diamond drilling preparations are now underway on site. 

The news has sent today’s share price down -10.81%, but, consider that on August 3, the share price went up 267%. 

That soaring figure came on the back of photographs of cores included in materials at the time. 

Shares have gone from 4.9c in late July to 19c last Friday. Even with today’s losses, the share price is still up 211% over the last month. 

It’s likely sell-offs today come from shareholders who sense the next exciting bit of news might be a while off, and are thereby keen to realise gains.

But with 7,000 samples to be reported on as part of a geochemical study launching later this month, there will likely be a constant feed of information dripped to market. What this will do to Cobre’s share price depends on what it turns up. 

Tell me more about this drill run

Cobre will launch the rigs at its Ngami copper project in Botswana. 

Earlier this month, the company noted infill drilling was to take place on the back of the most recently provided results; that infill program is the diamond drill run launched today. 

New drilling will ultimately be strategically executed so as to provide the company a good idea of where copper mineralisation starts and ends on-site in all directions, and at what depth copper continues to. 

Part of investor enthusiasm for the copper project is no doubt also due to projected forecasts of the copper market. Everybody from BloombergNEF to the Australian Chief Economist predict copper prices to continue experiencing a rally well into the 2030s. 

Cobre’s Ngami permit covers some 500km worth of target area in the Kalahari Copper Belt, in a region of Botswana the company is intending to help develop into a new African copper district.

What does the rest of 2022 look like? 

Further drilling is slated for the rest of the year. 

For now, investors will just have to wait to see what else Cobre turns up.  

The company should be well placed to carry out its drilling activities in the fairly lower-cost jurisdiction of Botswana for the rest of the year. At the end of June, Cobre had $2.7m in cash. 

A recent raising has awarded Cobre $7m, now giving the company $9m in cash, as well as $2m in equities.

And with impressive visible copper present in cores, it likely won’t need to worry about retaining market interest just yet. 

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