Tennant Minerals (ASX: TMS) is preparing to commence its next drilling phase at the high-grade Bluebird copper-gold discovery in the Northern Territory,
The new drilling will include testing of multiple targets within an expanded 2.5km strike- length mineralised footprint, including the Perseverance Target - 2km west of Bluebird.
Bluebird is one of multiple copper-gold targets within a 5km geophysical footprint at the company’s 100% owned Barkly Project, located on the eastern edge of the richly-endowed Tennant Creek Mineral Field (TCMF), which produced 5.5Moz of gold and 700kt of copper from 1934 to 2005.
The new drilling phase will aim to extend the Bluebird discovery and define high-grade copper-gold mineralisation from near surface to over 400m depth and more than 800m strike-length, with the aim of defining a maiden Mineral Resource that will be sufficient to support a stand-alone mining and processing operation at Bluebird.
The company’s most recent drilling results from the Bluebird discovery zone included an exceptional intersection of 61.8m at 2.3% Cu, 0.4g/t Au from 149.2m in diamond drill-hole BBDD00455. This intensely mineralised intersection includes a massive chalcopyrite interval grading 17% copper over 6.85m.
Gold grades of up to 14.7 g/t Au were also identified. Other intersections within this shallow high-grade zone include 17.95m @ 11.1 g/t Au, 2.7% Cu from 131m downhole in BBDD00266 (see Figures 1 and 2), which included a bonanza gold intersection of 5m @ 38.6 g/t Au, 6.1% Cu, demonstrating the exceptional grades of both copper and gold in this greenfields discovery.
The second key focus of the upcoming drilling program will be to test the expanded 2.5km strike length Bluebird-Perseverance corridor, running from the recently identified Bluebird East copper-gold mineralisation to Perseverance, 2km to the west of Bluebird. This major target zone includes an exceptionally strong magnetic-gravity feature centred below the Perseverance gold workings, where historical shallow drilling reported bonanza gold grades of up to 3m @ 50 g/t Au7.
“After the significant progress made at the Bluebird copper-gold discovery in 2023, our geological team is looking forward to launching our next drilling campaign as soon as the rainy season ends in Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory,” CEO Vincent Algar said.
“The Tennant Creek Mineral Field, which historically produced more than 5.5Moz of gold and 700kt of copper, is enjoying a resurgence of interest with multiple companies active in the area, primarily due to renewed investor interest in copper and gold and the high potential for new discoveries.
“Our recent exceptional intersection of copper with gold in hole BBDD0045 of 61.8m at 2.3% copper and 0.4 g/t gold, has extended and confirmed the continuity of the high-grade massive copper sulphide zone at Bluebird. The new drilling program will continue to extend the existing high-grade mineralised footprint and work towards defining a maiden Mineral Resource.
“We will also be testing new targets within the expanded 2.5km ironstone corridor which now extends from Bluebird East to Perseverance, some 2km west of the Bluebird discovery. A review of historical results at Perseverance has identified high-grade gold drilling intersections of up to 50 g/t Au and 43.2 g/t Au over 3m, and 42m of mineralised ironstone with grades of up to 8.5 g/t Au. This has reinforced our confidence that the Perseverance-Bluebird corridor could host multiple high-grade copper and gold discoveries.
“Collectively, the quality of these drilling targets gives the Company great confidence that the Bluebird discovery will represent an exciting new chapter in the world-class Tennant Creek story,” Mr Algar added.