Tennant Minerals (ASX:TMS) has commenced a new drilling programme aiming to triple the strike-extent of the Bluebird high-grade copper-gold discovery in the Northern Territory.
This programme follows the recent approval of a new Exploration Operations ‘Mine Management Plan’ (MMP) received from the NT government.
The new drilling will comprise up to 4,000m of RC and diamond drilling and will aim to:
1. define and extend the newly discovered shallow extensions of the Bluebird mineralisation, and,
2. test the new and highly prospective targets identified at Bluebird East and Bluebird West for repeats of the high-grade copper-gold mineralisation.
The new targets at Bluebird East and Bluebird West have been identified through modelling of IP resistivity data combined with 3D gravity inversions and detailed drone-magnetics imagery.
Previous, strongly copper anomalous shallow RAB drilling at Bluebird East is centred 500m to the east of the currently identified Bluebird discovery mineralisation footprint. The Bluebird East target is associated with recently modelled IP/low-resistivity anomaly and a thick and continuous gravity “ironstone” anomaly.
A similar IP low resistivity/gravity high is located at Bluebird West, centred 500m west of Bluebird, where no previous drilling has been carried out.
The geophysical modelling and previous geochemistry shows potential to triple the footprint of the copper-gold mineralised zone at the Bluebird discovery.
The new phase of drilling at Bluebird will build on the shallow copper-gold intersections that have confirmed the continuity of close to surface mineralisation in the eastern extension of the Bluebird copper- gold discovery.
Drilling is also planned to further test the Bluebird mineralisation to the west where the mineralised zone remains open below recently received further significant results from the Stage 3 drilling, which intersected significant mineralisation.
Further diamond drilling will also test the western part of the discovery where recent Stage 3 drillhole BBDD0026 produced an exceptionally high-grade gold-copper-bismuth intersection.
The Bluebird high-grade copper-gold discovery is located within the company’s 100% owned Barkly Project, on the eastern edge of the richly endowed Tennant Creek Mineral Field, which produced over 5.5Moz of gold and over 700kt of copper from 1934 to 2005.
Major historical mines in this region include Peko, which produced 3.7Mt @ 4% Cu, 3.5 g/t Au4 and Warrego, which produced 6.75Mt @ 6.6 g/t Au, 1.9% Cu.
The mineralisation intersected at Bluebird is similar to the high-grade copper-gold orebodies previously mined in the Tennant Creek Mineral Field.
