Tennant Minerals Ltd. - More Exceptional Results up to 28.3 g/t Gold and 22.6% Copper from Drilling at the Bluebird Discovery
High-grade gold and copper zones extended and open in all directions
- Latest drilling at the Bluebird discovery in the Northern Territory continues to produce outstanding high-grade copper-gold intersections including:
- 16.45m @ 3.05% Cu and 2.31 g/t Au from 203.65m (downhole) in BBDD0025,
incl. 3.8m @ 0.87% Cu and 9.08 g/t Au from 203.65m incl. 1.03m @ 28.3 g/t Au
& incl. 3.4m @ 8.22% Cu and 0.16 g/t Au from 216.7m incl. 1.1m @ 22.6% Cu
- The new results extend the thick, dilational, high-grade Bluebird gold and copper zone to the west and below the previously announced spectacular intersections which included:
- BBDD0021: 24m @ 0.66% Cu, 11.8 g/t Au including 5.7m @ 0.74% Cu and 49.3 g/t Au1 and,
- BBDD0018: 30.5m @ 6.2% Cu, 6.8 g/t Au including 17.8m @ 5.2% Cu, 11.5 g/t Au2.
- Drilling set to commence to extend the Bluebird discovery west of recent spectacular gold and copper results, as well as at depth below the latest high-grade copper-gold intersections.
- In parallel, a new induced polarisation (IP) geophysics survey will test for extensions to the low-resistivity anomaly associated with the Bluebird mineralisation on 80m step-out sections to the west and east of the discovery, as well as linking to Perseverance across a 2.5km zone.
- Following the IP survey, further drilling will test for extensions/repeats of Bluebird and test other priority targets identified within the 2.5km Bluebird-Perseverance Corridor, where recent drilling has intersected mineralised structures.
Tennant Minerals Chairman Matthew Driscoll commented:
“The continued intersection of high gold and copper grades at Bluebird, over thick intervals, confirms that we are onto a genuine high-grade copper-gold discovery.
“Bluebird remains completely open in all directions and we will now drill for immediate extensions along strike and at depth, with the aim of defining a multi-million tonne high-grade mineral resource of similar tenor to the historically mined Peko deposit, 20km west of Bluebird, which produced 3.7 million tonnes of 4% copper and 3.5 g/t gold from the 1930s to the 1970s3.
“We are also confident our upcoming IP geophysical program will identify more Bluebird look-alike targets for drill testing along the 2.5km Bluebird-Perseverance Corridor.
“The potential for multiple high-grade copper-gold discoveries along this 2.5km corridor significantly enhances the scope for our 100% owned Barkly Project to be developed into a stand-alone mining operation.”
20th March 2023, Tennant Minerals Ltd (“Tennant” or “the Company”) (ASX:TMS) is very pleased to announce further, outstanding, high-grade copper and gold results from the latest diamond drilling program at the Bluebird copper-gold discovery, on the Company’s 100% owned Barkly Project, 40km east of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory (see longitudinal projection, Figure 1, cross section, Figure 2, and location, Figure 3).
The new results include thick and high-grade copper and gold intersections in BBDD0025 (see Table 1):
- 16.45m @ 3.05% Cu and 2.31 g/t Au from 203.65m (downhole),
incl. 8.35m @ 2.35% Cu and 4.47 g/t Au from 203.65m,
incl. 3.8m @ 0.87% Cu and 9.08 g/t Au from 203.65m incl. 1.03m @ 1.47% Cu, 28.3 g/t Au,
and incl. 3.4m @ 8.22% Cu and 0.16 g/t Au from 216.7m incl. 1.1m @ 22.6% Cu.
Figure 1: Bluebird discovery, longitudinal projection showing latest exceptional Cu-Au intersection in BBDD0025
Figure 2: Bluebird cross section 448,280mE showing high-grade gold-copper intersections in BBDD0021 & 0025.
The high-grade copper and gold results in BBDD0025 are down dip of the previous bonanza gold intersection in BBDD0021 of 24m @ 0.66% Cu, 11.8 g/t Au including 5.7m @ 0.74% Cu and 49.3 g/t Au1 (see Figure 2) and 40m along strike and down-plunge to the west of the spectacular intersection in BDD0018 of 30.5m @ 6.2% Cu, 6.8 g/t Au including 17.8m @ 5.2% Cu, 11.5 g/t Au2.
These thick and high-grade copper and gold intersections are associated with a shallow easterly-plunging dilational zone where the mineralised structure at Bluebird has intersected an anticlinal closure (Figure 2).
This copper and gold-rich zone has now been defined by drilling across a 240m strike-length and remains completely open to the east and west, as well as at depth (Figure 1).
The footprint of the Bluebird discovery is already of similar dimensions to other high-grade copper-gold deposits mined at Tennant Creek. These include the Peko mine, just 20km west of Bluebird (see location, Figure 3), which produced 3.7Mt of ore grading 4% Cu and 3.5 g/t Au3 from the 1930s, closing in the 1970s.
The Warrego deposit, which was the last major mine at Tennant Creek, occurs at the western edge of the Tennant Creek Mineral Field (see Figure 3) and produced 6.75Mt @ 6.6 g/t Au, 1.9% Cu3 from a fully preserved deposit (un-eroded). Bluebird is similarly fully preserved, with the top of the deposit at 80m below surface and geophysics indicating continuations at depths greater than 400m below surface.
Other new results from drillholes at the western end of the current drill-testing at Bluebird produced significant copper intersections which are completely open to the west as well as up and down dip. These results include (see Table 1 for details):
- 4.1m @ 1.51% Cu from 174.8m incl. 1.4m @ 2.44% Cu in BBDD0023
- 3.55m @ 1.44% Cu from 206.25m incl. 0.75m @ 5.86% Cu, 0.16 g/t Au in BBDD0024
Results are pending for the deeper extension of BBDD0019, which intersected the Bluebird structure with 26m of hematite alteration at 300m below surface (see Appendix 1 for description of mineralisation).
The next drilling program at Bluebird will commence as soon as possible following the wet season (expected early to mid-April). Drilling is planned to test immediate extensions of the high-grade copper and gold zone to the west and at shallow depth from the exceptional intersections in BBDD0018 (30.5m @ 6.2% Cu, 6.8 g/t Au)2 and BBDD0021 (24m @ 0.66% Cu, 11.8 g/t Au)1 (see Figure 1).
Deeper drilling is also planned to test below the high-grade copper and gold intersection in BBDD0025 (16.45m @ 3.05% Cu, 2.31 g/t Au) and below the previous intersection in BBDD0015 (17.8m @ 3.7% Cu, 0.34g/t Au)4 for extensions of the high-grade zone as well as testing potential for a repeat of the thick dilational zone at depth, where the mineralised structure is projected to intersect the next anticlinal closure (see Figure 1 and Figure 2).
The objectives of the immediate drilling program are to test Bluebird along strike as well as up and down-dip/plunge to define the potential of the discovery to host a multi-million tonne, high-grade copper-gold resource, which could potentially support a stand-alone mining and processing project.
Figure 3: Location of the Barkly Project and major historical mines in the Tennant Creek Mineral Field
OTHER PRIORITY TARGETS TO BE TESTED IN BLUEBIRD-PERSEVERANCE CORRIDOR
The results of the previous IP program carried out by Planetary Geophysics at Bluebird5 revealed a distinct low-resistivity (high conductivity) response, corresponding with the Bluebird mineralisation on cross section 448,360mE (see Figure 4 below).
Figure 4: Bluebird cross section 448,360mE on IP resistivity (reverse colour stretch).
Further dipole-dipole IP traverses, in combination with detailed drone magnetics and detailed gravity modelling, has identified six priority targets for the discovery of buried high-grade copper-gold deposits within the 2.5km Bluebird-Perseverance Corridor5 (see Figure 5).
Three priority, coincident magnetic, gravity and IP low-resistivity targets were selected for initial drill-testing, including Perseverance North, Perseverance and Bluebird West7 (Figure 4). Eight reverse-circulation (RC) holes with six diamond tails tested the shallow expression of target zones, for a total of 1981.1m (see Table 3 for drilling details). The initial drill testing of these priority targets intersected mineralised and brecciated fault structures in all three target areas7. The potentially mineralised structures are interpreted to lie above ironstone hosted copper-gold targets previously identified from inversion modelling of gravity and magnetics, as well as associated with IP low resistivity geophysical anomalies. Results are pending for these recently completed RC and diamond drill holes.
Following the success of this initial IP program, a further dipole-dipole IP survey will now be carried out by Planetary Geophysics. The program will include 80m spaced IP lines that step out east and west of Bluebird, to locate extensions and/or repeats of the Bluebird mineralisation for follow-up drill testing. This will be followed by a series of 160m spaced lines across the Bluebird-Perseverance Corridor (Figure 5), designed to map the potentially mineralised structures. A total of over 32 line-km of dipole-dipole IP are planned.
The results of the IP survey will be modelled and combined with gravity and magnetics inversion models to define targets for ironstone hosted copper-gold mineralisation.
Following receipt of results from the initial drill testing of the other priority targets, and the results of the follow-up IP program, further drilling will be carried out to test the ironstone hosted copper-gold targets.
Figure 5: Bluebird-Perseverance zone bouguer gravity image with structures & gravity-magnetic-IP resistivity targets.
For enquiries please contact:
Matthew Driscoll
Non-Executive Chairman
M: +61 (0) 417 041 725
Stuart Usher
Company Secretary
M: +61 (0) 499 900 044
Andrew Rowell
White Noise Communications
M: +61 (0) 400 466 226
The entire press release can be found under the following link: https://cdn-api.markitdigital.com/apiman-gateway/ASX/asx-research/1.0/file/2924-02645405-6A1141484?access_token=83ff96335c2d45a094df02a206a39ff4