Exploration business Tennant Minerals (ASX: TMS) commenced 2024 with a bang after delivering an outstanding drill hit at its Bluebird copper and gold prospect in the Tennant Creek region of the Northern Territory.
The “exceptional” intercept of 61.8m at 2.3 per cent copper – including a 6.85m massive sulphide zone grading 17 per cent copper – set the tone for the year as the company served up a string of notable outcomes at Bluebird and its surrounds, situated within the group’s wholly owned Barkly project.
Barkly and Bluebird are located 40km east of Tennant Creek, a town lying at the eastern end of a major copper-gold terrane which has historically produced more than 5 million ounces of gold and some 700,000 tonnes of copper.
And Tennant Minerals could be the latest player to make its mark in this fertile geological domain if its series of rich drill hits are anything to go by.
Expansion through drilling
Broadly speaking, the company is targeting the expansion and delineation of its Bluebird copper and gold discovery with the drill rig.
Following an oversubscribed $4.8 million capital raise in April last year, the cashed-up explorer launched a major drilling campaign to test priority targets on a 2.5km strike length running along the Bluebird-Perseverance mineralised corridor.
The campaign was also designed to follow up on previous significant intercepts including an eye-catching 3m hit at 50 grams per tonne gold to the west of Bluebird.
The first phase of the drill campaign, taking in 4,500m, was devised to expand the high-grade copper and gold mineralisation at Bluebird, which remained open in all directions.
It aimed to build on multiple high-grade intercepts at the prospect which also included 14.1m at 7.6 per cent copper and 2.4 grams per tonne gold, as well as 17.95m at 2.7 per cent copper and 11.1 grams per tonne gold.
A subsequent second phase of the program for up to 7,500m of drilling was formulated to test for potential repeats of Bluebird within the Bluebird-Perseverance corridor.
Furthermore, the company was awarded a Northern Territory government co-funded grant for up to 50 per cent of the cost of a deep drillhole targeting a large coincident gravity and inverted magnetic model near the rich 3m hit grading 50 grams per tonne gold.
Drilling delivers high-grade hits and new mineralised zones
At the tail end of September, the drilling hit the mark with first results returning further thick and high-grade intercepts and unveiling newly defined copper and gold zones at Bluebird.
Notable hits included 14m at 0.8 per cent copper, 3 grams per tonne gold, and 3.6 grams per tonne silver in one hole. This intercept also contained a high-grade 5m zone at 8.3 grams per tonne gold and 2 per cent copper, with individual samples reaching as high as 22.7 grams per tonne gold.
Elsewhere, the drilling also revealed new zone of copper and gold mineralisation to the east of Bluebird which was interpreted to be thickening at depth. Here, significant hits included 28m at 2.1 per cent copper equivalent, 15m at 1 per cent copper equivalent, and a broad 41m intercept grading 0.57 per cent copper equivalent.
Management believes these results showcase the potential to grow the mineralised system at Bluebird and its vicinity.
Furthermore, the drilling enabled Tennant Minerals to identify up to four large and high-grade copper-gold lenses through updated interpretation of the mineralisation at the prospect.
According to the company, each of the lenes stretches for up to 300m in length and sinks to 200m depth. They all sit within an ironstone host corridor which remains open to the east and west of previously defined mineralisation.
Launch of broader gold and copper hunt
On a wider scale, Tennant Minerals has defined an ironstone corridor stretching for 5km across its wider Barkly tenure. It believes this structure has potential for hosting multiple copper and gold discoveries.
At the tail end of last year, the company launched a new broadened drilling program which is also targeting high-grade gold and Bluebird lookalikes along this prospective geological formation.
Tennant Minerals Chief Executive Officer, Vincent Algar, commented:
“The most recent drilling at Bluebird continued to confirm and expand the high gold and copper grades from previous drilling programs. Intersections continued to extend the mineralised zones to the east and down-plunge to the west. This new drilling program will continue our strategy of expanding Bluebird as one of the most important new discoveries in Tennant Creek for decades as well as starting follow up drilling on our list of high priority targets along strike.”
Newly acquired geophysics and geochemistry data will also be used to generate more targets for follow-up drilling during the 2025 field season, as the company marches towards its objective of defining a substantial high-grade copper gold mineral resource at Barkly.