Coda Minerals (ASX:COD) - Q1 2027 PFS Underway with High Copper-Silver Recoveries

Interview with Chris Stevens, CEO of Coda Minerals

Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/coda-minerals-asxcod-fully-funded-pfs-continuous-drilling-set-up-big-2026-8680

Recording date: 6th October 2026

Coda Minerals (ASX:COD) is developing the Elizabeth Creek copper-silver project in South Australia, about seven hours north of Adelaide and 40km west of BHP's Carrapateena mine. The project hosts a JORC resource of 65.5Mt at 1.6% CuEq, containing more than 700,000t of copper and 28 million ounces of silver across the Windabout and MG14 open pits and the Emmie Bluff underground deposit at about 400m depth.

The company is just over halfway through a pre-feasibility study, targeting delivery in Q1 2027 on an 18-month schedule. The March 2026 scoping study update set a base case pre-tax NPV7 of A$2.25 billion and a pre-tax IRR of 56%, with a post-tax NPV7 of A$1.52 billion and IRR of 43%. Those figures assume US$10,500/t copper, US$60/oz silver and A$615 million in capital expenditure over a 15.5-year mine life. At a market capitalisation of about A$51 million, Coda trades at roughly 3% of post-tax NPV.

CEO Chris Stevens says that discount is typical of the study phase. He expects it to narrow as three things arrive: a final flowsheet decision, a complete mine plan across all three deposits, and a defensible PFS valuation.

Metallurgy has made the most progress. The whole-ore chloride leach base case is now returning about 94% to 95% copper and 96% silver recovery, compared with low 80% recoveries via flotation. Around 130 tests have been run since the August 2025 scoping work, using a much wider spread of samples. Difficult Windabout material that floats at mid-70% recovery leached at about 90%. Coda has also recovered about 40% of the cobalt in the leach, a stream excluded from all previous economics.

Next steps are METSIM process modelling, which takes about a month, then locked cycle testing to confirm reagent recycling in an integrated circuit. The final trade-off between leach and flotation follows. Flotation remains a viable alternative.

Mine planning starts with re-optimising the open pits at current prices, as they were last optimised at US$7,800/t copper. Their output will determine the underground mining rate at Emmie Bluff. Almost all of the previous mine plan sat in the Indicated category, supporting a maiden reserve without further drilling. The open pits also cushion the risk of a slow underground ramp-up.

On funding, Stevens ma