Tennant Minerals (ASX: TMS) has identified new copper and gold zones in a drilling programme at the Bluebird copper-gold discovery in the 100%-owned Barkly Project in the Northern Territory.
The results from the ongoing reverse circulation (RC) drilling programme have expanded the resource potential to the east, west and at depth within the Bluebird ironstone corridor,
Bluebird is located, at the eastern edge of the Tennant Creek Mineral Field, which produced more than 5.5Moz of gold and 700,000 tonnes of copper from 1934 to 20051.
The latest drilling programme was designed to build on the company’s previous success at Bluebird in delineating zones of significant copper and gold mineralisation over a 500m strike length and to a depth of more than 300m. Critically, the Bluebird mineralisation remains open to the east, west and at depth.
The recent drilling phase comprised 22 RC drillholes for 6,241m and tested the eastern and western extents of the known high-grade copper-gold mineralisation.
The drilling also included the first stage of new step-out drilling within the 2.5km strike-length Bluebird-Perseverance ironstone corridor (see gravity inversion & drilling locations, Figure 4).
Results included further high-grade, copper, gold with bismuth and silver intersections west and down- plunge of previous drilling, confirming and extending the potential for further zones of mineralisation extending west within the gravity defined ironstone corridor.
“The latest assay results we have received from Bluebird have not only confirmed the high gold and copper grades from previous drilling programs but have also extended the mineralised zones to the east and down-plunge to the west of previous drilling,” CEO, Vincent Algar, said.
“One of the most exciting outcomes of the program has been the identification that Bluebird is made up of up to four, large, high-grade copper/gold mineralised lenses within the east-west trending ironstone-host at Bluebird – which remain completely open to the east and west.
“New intersections associated with the host ironstone lithology, have extended the mineralisation at depth and westwards down-plunge, with gold grades of up to 22.7 g/t in BBRC0040 and good widths of copper-with-gold such as the 8m at 2.1% copper, 0.5 g/t gold intersected in BBRC0044.
“The new drilling has also identified a new hanging-wall zone of thick, strong mineralisation which continues eastwards and to depth in the intersections in BBRC0034 and BBRC0047. This new zone is completely untested further eastwards and at depth within the host ironstone corridor.
“The high-intensity of the Bluebird copper-gold-bismuth-hematite mineralisation has always suggested it is part of a much larger system. The greater then 5km strike-length gravity corridor within the Barkly tenement includes multiple repeats of the Bluebird geophysical signature, and further work is underway to define and test targets for new discoveries.
“The latest results reinforce our confidence in defining economic copper-gold resources within the Barkly project, in line with our goal to become a major player in the rejuvenated Tennant Creek Mineral Field, which has already produced 5.5Moz of gold and 700kt of copper.”
