Ann: Step-out Drilling Commenced at Bluebird Cu-Au Discovery, page-8

Tennant begins step-out drilling at Bluebird Copper-Gold Discovery, NT
By Harry Mulholland
13 October 2022

Tennant Minerals (ASX:TMS) reports it has begun a stage two diamond drilling program at the Bluebird Copper-Gold prospect located within the Barkly Project near Tennant Creek, Northern Territory.

A total of up to 10 stage two holes for 3,000m will be drilled with the aim of extending the Bluebird discovery to a depth of more than 400m depth and test for extensions and repeats of ‘high-grade’ copper-gold zone along strike to the west.

The company reports this will define the potential for a ‘high-grade’ copper-gold mineral resource of similar scale to the Peko deposit 20km to the west Bluebird, which produced 3.7Mt @ 4% Cu and 3.5g/t Au from 1934 and 1981.

The stage two program builds on the recently completed Stage 1 diamond drilling program at Bluebird, which achieved two important milestones.

The first milestone was definition and extension of the upper ‘high-grade’ thickened zone at Bluebird, developed within an anticlinal hinge ‘roll-over’ position, and this zone includes exceptional copper-gold intersections such as 63m @ 2.1% Cu and 4.6g/t Au from 153m downhole in BBDD0012, including 40m @ 3% Cu and 7.3% g/t Au from 155m, and 27.55 @ 3.6% Cu and 10g/t Au from 160.45m.

This zone plunges shallowly and remains open to the west of the recent of 40m @ 2.6% Cu and 1.34g/t Au from 131m downhole in BBDD0013, including 24.5m @ 3.9% Cu and 0.45g/t Au from 146.5m, and including 4.75m @ 15.2% Cu and 0.36g/t Au from 164m.

The second milestone was the extension of Bluebird to more than 250m below surface, based on recent drilling results that show the potential for a second ‘high-grade’ thickened zone below recent intersections that include 17.8m @ 3.7% Cu and 0.34g/t Au from 277m downhole in BBDD0015, including 9.5m @ 6% Cu and 0.48g/t Au from 278m, and 2.3m @ 12.3 Cu and 0.36g/t Au from 285.2m.

Further results received from the final drillhole of the stage one program includes 13m @ 0.75% Cu and 0.05g/t Au from 298m downhole in BBDD0016, including 2m @ 2.48% Cu and 0.13g/t Au from 299m.

Up to 7 diamond holes in the stage two program will be drilled to test the steeply plunging zone at Bluebird to more than 400m below surface, and also to test for the second thickened zone immediately below BBDD0013.

Tennant reports an additional 3 holes will be drilled to follow-up on the results of the IP geophysics program, recently completed over the Bluebird mineralisation, and stepping out 100m to the west.

The company says the results of the IP program have shown a ‘distinct’ low resistivity and coincident chargeability response corresponding with the Bluebird mineralisation on the central section 448,360mE that confirms Bluebird can be detected with IP.

This section includes the BBDD0012 intersection.

Tennant also reports step-out sections to the west of the drilling on 448,300mE and 448,240mE to date have also produced low resistivity and high chargeability IP responses indicative of a western extension to the ‘high-grade’ copper-gold sulphide mineralisation.

The 3 drillholes are planned to test the strong IP anomaly on 448,240mE which represents a 100m step-out to the west of previous ‘high-grade’ intersections such as BBDD0013.

Tennant Minerals Chairman Matthew Driscoll said the company is very excited to get the new diamond drilling program underway, which is designed to ‘significantly’ expand the footprint of Bluebird and scope the mineral resource potential of this new copper-gold discovery at the Barkly Project.

“Our geophysical programs, including new IP results, have allowed us to fingerprint the Bluebird discovery and shown potential for repeats of the high-grade copper zone to the west of Bluebird, within the 2km Bluebird Perseverance Corridor, which we also plan to drill test.

“WITH EVERY NEW DRILLHOLE, THE POTENTIAL FOR A MAJOR NEW COPPER-GOLD FIELD IN THE BARKLY PROJECT KEEPS GROWING AND WE HOPE TO CONTINUE THIS PERFORMANCE WITH THE CURRENT STAGE 2 DRILLING PROGRAM”

With every new drillhole, the potential for a major new copper-gold field in the Barkly Project keeps growing and we hope to continue this performance with the current stage two drilling program.

This is an exciting time for the company as we look to unlock the true potential of what we believe is a major high-grade copper and gold discovery in a highly endowed mineral province.”

Bluebird is located within Tennant’s 100% owned Barkly Project, located 45km east of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory at the eastern edge of the Tennant Creek Mineral Field, which produced over 5Moz of gold and over 500kt of copper from 1934 to 2005.

The Barkly Project comprises the Barkly (EL 28620) and Babbler (EL 30701) tenements which Tennant considers ‘highly-prospective’ for magnetite-hematite (iron oxide) copper-gold mineralisation.

The company reports the recently completed 6 hole Stage 1 diamond drilling program was designed to define and expand the footprint of the ‘high-grade’ copper-gold zone discovered at Bluebird.

The drilling program to date has identified a ‘steep’ westerly plunging zone of copper-gold mineralisation that extends from 60m to more than 250m below surface, and 150m along strike in an east-west orientation.

Interpretation of the key drilling intersections, utilising structural data from the logging of drill core, indicates that the ‘thick’ and ‘high-grade’ copper and gold intersections in BBDD0012 and BBDD0013 are associated with ‘steeply’ dipping structures that have intersected the axis of a shallow-plunging anticline.

The company says this association with anticlinal fold structures is analogous to other major discoveries at Tennant Creek including the Warrego Copper-Gold Deposit which produced 6.75Mt @ 1.9% Cu, 6.6g/t Au, and the Rover 1 discovery of Castille Resources (ASX:CST), located under cover to the southwest of Tennant Creek, where a Mineral Resource of 4.7Mt @ 1.63% Cu and 1.73g/t Au has recently been announced.

Tennant reports the Bluebird discovery is associated with a gravity high, which is part of a 5km long gravity anomaly known as the Bluebird Corridor, and this anomaly reflects ‘high-density’, iron enrichment in the primary zone below the near surface leaching that extends to over 60m depth at Bluebird.

Interpretation of the new drone magnetics imagery and modelling, combined with the detailed gravity data has identified 12 coincident magnetic-gravity copper-gold targets within a 2km Bluebird-Perseverance Target Zone extending west of the ‘high-grade’ Bluebird copper-gold discovery,

The company reports this major target zone includes a strong magnetic-gravity feature centred below the historical Perseverance gold workings.

Previous RC drilling under Perseverance produced ‘shallow, high-grade’ gold intersections such as 3m @ 50g/t Au from 42m in PERC015, and 3m @ 43.2g/t Au from 72m in PERC001.

These ‘high-grade’ gold intersections have not been followed-up by Tennant, and the underlying iron-stone copper-gold target is yet to be drill tested.

Further IP traverses were carried out over up to 12 gravity-magnetic targets identified within the 2km Bluebird-Perseverance Target Zone.

Further drilling will be planned to test the priority copper-gold targets identified from the magnetics and gravity modelling, as well as the IP survey within the Bluebird-Perseverance Target Zone.

Tennant Minerals is an exploration and development company with copper-gold projects in the Tennant Creek area of the Northern Territory.

https://mining*.com.au/tennant-begins-step-out-drilling-at-bluebird-copper-gold-discovery-nt/