Tennant goes big after bonanza Bluebird copper-gold hit

Shares in Tennant Minerals jumped more than 20% today and with a spectacular 63m intersection grading 2.1% copper and 4.6g/t gold at its Bluebird prospect, it’s not hard to see why.

The result from the first diamond hole (BBDD0012) at the prospect highlights its potential to rival nearby high-grade copper-gold deposits such as Peko (3.7Mt at 4% copper and 3.5g/t gold) and Nobles Nob (2Mt at 17.3g/t gold).

It also enhances the prospectivity of additional magnetic-gravity targets within the 5km strike-length Bluebird Corridor such as Perseverance about 1.5km to the west of Bluebird where previous drill-hits of 3m at 50g/t gold and 3m at 43.2g/t gold have not been followed up.

Tennant Minerals (ASX:TMS) is waiting on assays from a further five drillholes in the current drill program, all of which intersected thick hematite alteration and copper mineralisation that remains open to the west and at depth.

“The latest drilling results from Bluebird are stunning. Not only have we continued to intersect thick, high-grade copper, but we have also discovered a distinct high-grade gold shoot within the broader mineralised zone with spectacular intersection grades of up to 38.5 grams per tonne gold,” chairman Matthew Driscoll said.

“We have really only scratched the surface at Bluebird, with the copper-gold discovery zone still completely open to the west and below 200 metres depth.

“In addition to Bluebird, we have identified at least another 12 untested magnetic/gravity targets with a similar signature to Bluebird along the 5km Bluebird geophysical corridor.”

Barkly project

Bluebird is located within the wholly-owned Barkly project in the Northern Territory at the eastern edge of the Tennant Creek mineral field which has produced over 5Moz of gold and over 500,000t of copper between 1934 and 2005.

The six hole diamond drill program was designed to scope out and expand the footprint of the recently discovered high-grade copper-gold zone at Bluebird.

While all six holes s intersected intense hematite alteration with visible copper mineralisation including malachite and/or chalcocite (copper sulphide) and native copper, core samples are currently being assayed from a further three mineralised intersections.

These are:

BBDD0013 that tested extensions of the high-grade copper-gold zone to the west of BBDD0012, intersecting a 46m zone of hematite alteration, including 21m of intense hematite-magnetite and copper mineralisation from 157m downhole;
BBDD0014 which tested the top of the Bluebird mineralised zone, intersecting 34m of hematite-silica alteration, including 16m of copper mineralisation from 130m; and
BBDD0015, that tested the Bluebird mineralisation to the west and deeper from BBDD0012 and intersected 62m of hematite-silica alteration, including a 20m zone of specular-hematite and copper mineralisation from 277m.

Tennant added the mineralisation in BBDD0015 has changed orientation to dip steeply to the north, indicating that some previous holes may have stopped short of the main high-grade zone, which could extend much deeper than previously interpreted.

Two other holes, BBDD0017 and BBDD0016 were drilled to the west and down-plunge from the other holes, intersecting 64m of hematite alteration from 162m and 35m zone of hematite alteration from 291m respectively.

Downhole electromagnetics will be carried out shortly on these holes to detect in-hole or off hole conductors that may represent extensions or repeats of the Bluebird sulphide zone, which will be targeted for further drilling.

This article was developed in collaboration with Tennant Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.