Tennant Minerals (ASX:TMS) is hoping to uncover a replica of its greenfields Bluebird copper-gold discovery, as part of its Barkly Project in the Northern Territory, through exploration over the next 12 months.
Speaking to Mining.com.au on the sidelines of this year’s Brisbane Mining and Investor’s Conference, CEO Vincent Algar says although there are plenty of M&A deals being inked in the current market, as reported by this news service, Tennant will focus on organic growth.
“We are comfortable that we can execute ourselves. We don’t need any joint ventures to do that. We’ve made the discovery, we’ve got the team and capability to do it ourselves. We don’t need help on that front, but what we do need is new investors to help us drive the project forward.”
He tells this news service that the company’s exploration strategy has been constructed with several main priorities in mind.
“One is to develop and define the primary mineral resource for the project, which we anticipate we can do in the second half of this year. So by this time next year, we’ll have had that mineral resource drilled and defined and out there in the marketplace.
And the second thing is to start testing some of our more regional targets. We’ve got a target for Perseverance, 2km west of where we are, that’s an absolute ripper to go and find another Bluebird. So going out there this time next year, we anticipate a second discovery and to define a resource in our first discovery, at least.
We’re looking at extending our deposit from here at Bluebird, both looking at targets to the west and to the east just along strike from where we are effectively creating a field of deposits.”
Algar explains to aid in accomplishing this feat the company is looking to reign in a fresh herd of investors, particularly those in Queensland, due to their “understanding of copper and gold”.
“We want to get ourselves known. The company has [been] increasing its profile because of the results we’ve been getting in the Tennant Creek copper mineral field.
And the presence at this conference has given us an opportunity to expose ourselves to a whole new group of investors. We’re based in Western Australia, the project’s in the Northern Territory, and we wanted to expose ourselves to some of the Queensland investors, which I know are very good at investing in junior resource companies.
The Queensland investor base understands copper and gold because of resources like Mount Isa and Cloncurry, and all the other bits and pieces they’ve had in this area. They understand copper probably a lot more than some of the Western Australian investors might, for example.
There’s not a lot of exposure on the Australian Securities Exchange market to high rate copper gold at the moment. And investors are a little bit tired of the rare earth and lithium space and needing something to get themselves back up, and copper offers that opportunity.
The project itself is lending itself to high-grade copper and gold intersections in a well known field that delivered over 5 million ounces of gold and 800,000 tonnes of copper metal over time.”
Algar adds it is equity investors specifically that the company finds most attractive as new potential shareholders.
“Our objective with investors is always to bring new investors on, whether they are small or large. But we want those as equity investors. We want them to come into the market and buy the shares. If they’re a fund, that’s the best place to get them in, get them to pay attention to the project and buy the company.
That’s the way to get the share price going.”
Tennant Minerals, which has a $21.4 million market capitalisation, is a copper-gold explorer and developer focused on its assets in the Tennant Creek area of the Northern Territory.
The company’s key assets are the Barkly and Babbler projects about 45km east of Tennant Creek.
Write to Adam Drought at Mining.com.au
Images: Tennant Minerals
