ASX-listed exploration company Tennant Minerals (ASX:TMS) has intersected ‘bonanza’ gold results in the latest drilling completed at the Bluebird copper-gold discovery, located within the Barkly Project in the Northern Territory.
The company says new ‘exceptionally high-grade’ results include hole BBDD0021 with 24m @ 0.66% copper (Cu) and 11.8g/t gold (Au) from 161m (downhole), including 5.7m @ 0.74% Cu and 49.3g/t Au from 161m; and 4.97m @ 1.06% Cu and 23.9g/t Au from 165.66m, as well as 3.94m @ 1.37% Cu from 179.3m.
The new gold results recorded in BBDD0021 occur at a similar depth to the intersections found in BBDD0018, and BBDD0012. These thick and ‘high-grade’ copper-gold intersections are associated with a shallow easterly plunging dilation zone where the mineralised structure at Bluebird has intersected an anticlinal closure.
The company says the ‘high-grade’ zone remains completely open to the east and west, where it projects to a shallower depth.
Commenting on the new results, Tennant Minerals Chairman Matthew Driscoll says: “The bonanza gold grades in this latest drill intersection at Bluebird have demonstrated continuity of the high-grade gold zone, which is completely open at shallow depth to the west and east.
“The bonanza gold grades in this latest drill intersection at Bluebird have demonstrated continuity of the high-grade gold zone, which is completely open at shallow depth to the west and east”
With every new hole we drill, the Bluebird discovery is looking more and more like a repeat of some of the best known high-grade copper-gold orebodies in the Tennant Creek Mineral Field, including the Peko deposit, only 20km west of Bluebird, which produced 3.7 million tonnes grading 4% copper and 3.5g/t gold from the 1930s to the 1970s.
Our planning is already well advanced for follow-up drilling to test the immediate extensions of this bonanza gold zone, along the multiple other exciting Bluebird look-alikes we have identified through our geophysical program along the 2.5km Bluebird-Perseverance Corridor.
These targets will be further refined by new IP programs as we look to define additional high-grade resources to underpin the development of this rich new copper-gold discovery.”
Tennant Minerals reports the discovery of this ‘high-grade’ gold with copper zone opens up potential for new drilling to continue delivering outstanding results at a shallower depth to the west, and also to the east.
The intersection of ‘high-grade’ gold in several holes at Bluebird also underlines the potential of the Bluebird discovery to rival the Peko deposit located 20km to the west which produced 3.7 million tonnes @ 4% Cu and 3.5g/t Au.
Other new results recorded from 2 ‘strongly’ copper mineralised zones in diamond hole BBDD0022 down-plunge from the main or eastern zone at Bluebird include 8.38m @ 1.61% Cu and 0.13g/t Au from 210.21m, including 2.84m @ 3.64% Cu and 0.12g/t Au from 211.62m.
Tennant Minerals says the results of BBDD0022 indicate continuity of the mineralisation at depth towards the previous intersection in BBDD0015 which recorded 17.8m @ 3.7% Cu and 0.34g/t Au from 277m which is open below a depth of 250m from surface.
The company reports results are pending for a further 4 completed holes which tested the western extensions of Bluebird, as well as at depth. Following the receipt of final results, further drilling will test immediate extensions of the thick and ‘high-grade’ gold and copper zone to the east and west.
Drilling is also planned to test depth extensions and a repeat of the thick dilational copper-gold one as the mineralised structure is projected to intersect the next anticlinal closure at depth.
Tennant Minerals also reports further dipole-dipole induced polarisation (IP) traverses in combination with detailed drone magnetics, and detailed gravity modelling has identified 6 priority targets for the discovery of buried ‘high-grade’ copper-gold deposits within the 2.5km Bluebird-Perseverance Corridor.
The company says 3 priority, coincident magnetic, gravity, and IP low-resistivity targets were selected for initial drill testing including Perseverance North, Perseverance, and Bluebird West.
This initial drill testing intersected mineralised and brecciated fault structures in all 3 target areas which are interpreted to lie above ironstone-hosted copper-gold targets. Results are pending for these recently completed reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drillholes.
Drilling programs planned at Bluebird and other priority targets will target multiple multi-million tonne ‘high-grade’ copper-gold deposits within the Barkly Project.
The aim of these programs is to discover and define ‘substantial high-grade’ copper-gold mineral resources at Barkly that are sufficient to support the development of a new standalone copper-gold project.
Tennant Minerals is an ASX-listed gold and copper exploration company that currently holds the Barkly, and Barkly-Babbler projects near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.
Images: Tennant Minerals Ltd
