Continental Copper has developed a unique understanding of the SE Asian geological and tectonic environment supported by a large regional whole rock geochemical and geochronological database and new regional scale mapping and structural analysis. This has been augmented by the acquisition and reprocessing of 2.1 million km2 of satellite gravity data across mainland SE Asia and the digitization and processing of a 48,000 km2 airborne gravity and magnetics survey in Cambodia.
Continental Copper has concluded that the copper and gold rich Loei Volcanic Arc in Thailand extends eastwards for 500 km as the Khvav Arc across central and northern Cambodia and hosts porphyry, vein and skarn copper-gold deposits of Triassic age. Three open pit and underground mines have been developed within this terrane in Cambodia and a number of porphyry Cu-Au deposits discovered.
The Loei-Khvav continental volcanic arcs which developed on the Indochina Block were generated by the subduction of the sediments and oceanic basalts of the Nan back-arc basin which closed in the late Triassic (200 million years ago). Following the subduction and closure of the Nan back-arc basin beneath the Indochina Block and the resulting collision of the Sukothai oceanic volcanic arc and the Sibumasu Gondwana terrane, there has been very little tectonic activity. The absence of tectonic activity and the deposition of thick Jurassic terrestrial sediments, which are now largely eroded, has resulted in the preservation of the volcanic arc rocks and alteration systems in the Continental Copper licence area.
Regional and project-based mapping by Continental Copper has discovered a previously unrecognized and unexplored 200km2 high-sulphidation alteration system with a regionally extensive sub-horizontal massive silica-pyrite lithocap. Within this lithocap vertical structures host vuggy silica zones and hydrothermal breccias with abundant oxides after sulphides up to 400 metres wide. To the south and east of the licences there are two Cu-Au mines and mills.
The planned 2022-23 program which has commenced, includes surface geochemistry and diamond drilling. Systematic grid sampling and low detection ICPMS geochemistry to map the alteration system and target potentially Cu-Au bearing intrusions and epithermal mineralization is in progress. Diamond drilling will target outcropping vuggy silica-sulphide zones with 500-metre-deep diamond drillholes
