Tennant Minerals reveals ‘spectacular’ find at Bluebird prospect in Barkly region

A new NT gold and copper prospect is delivering ‘spectacular’ results that could lead to hundreds of jobs in the Barkly region.

Exploration company Tennant Minerals Limited has reported “spectacular” results from its latest drilling at the company’s Bluebird gold and copper prospect in the Barkly region.

It followed “sensational” finds at the same prospect reported in August 2022.

Results posted with the Australian Stock Exchange describe a “spectacular” drill hit of 30.5m at 6.2 per cent copper and 6.8 per cent grams per tonne of gold.

This included tested intervals of 11.5 grams per tonne of gold over 17.8m and an overlapping 10.5 per cent copper over 16.1m.

“Diamond drillhole BBDD0018 has produced a spectacular, true width, intersection of high-grade copper and gold at the Bluebird discovery, 40km east of Tennant Creek,” the ASX announcement said.

Tennant Minerals rigs on site at the Bluebird prospect about 40km from Tennant Creek

“New drilling is planned to test shallow extensions of this exceptionally thick and high-grade copper-gold zone, as well as depth where results are pending from a further five drillholes, including intersections of thick and intense copper mineralisation,” it said.

“Drilling will also test other priority within the 2.5km Bluebird-Perseverance corridor.”

If the project goes ahead it could mean hundreds of construction jobs and dozens more working the mine site as well as potentially millions in royalties into Treasury coffers.

Tennant Minerals chairman Matthew Driscoll said the results were a platform for further drilling at the site.

“Drilling is already planned to extend this remarkable new discovery, which lies under shallow cover to the east of the Tennant Creek mineral field and continues to grow in all directions,” Mr Driscoll said.

“The results are another key step in our strategy to identify multiple, multimillion tonne, high-grade copper gold deposits within the Barkly tenements, where we aim to establish a stand-alone copper-gold project.”

Tennant Minerals technical manager Jon Dugdale

The testing site at the so-called Tennant Creek Mineral Field has a long history of producing rich gold and copper strikes.

Both the prosperous Peko and Warrego mines were located in the field and produced over 5 million ounces of gold and 500,000 tonnes of copper between 1934 and 2005.

Tennant Minerals technical manager Jon Dugdale said the company was targeting up to 5 million tonnes of high-grade copper and gold ore at the Bluebird and Perseverance sites and they are about halfway to that target, with further exploration required to expand the potential of the site then convert to an economic resource with further drilling.

Mr Dugdale said the strength of the finds allowed the listed company to raise approximately $5m, mainly from investors in NSW, Victoria and WA, which would be used for further exploration at the site.

He said the company hoped to identify at least 5 million tonnes of high-grade copper and gold bearing material through continued exploration but believed there could be twice that much within the company’s tenements.

Tennant Creek welcome sign. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

“If we can identify 5 million tonnes of high-grade copper and gold resources, which we think is there, then we’ll have another similar discovery to the historical Peko and Warrego mines and that could be enough because of the high grade,” Mr Dugdale said.

“The higher the grade the less tonnes you have to mine and the lower the cost of building the mine and processing facilities.

“If we can find 5 million tonnes of mineable materials at this grade, it could be a 10-year operation netting around half a million tonnes per annum.

“We don’t want to just drill a small resource and then depend on someone else mining and processing it.

“We want to prove up 5 million tonnes at Bluebird but also do further testing of other targets we’ve identified using geophysics within a 5km long corridor.

“We’ll then decide whether we’ll convert it to a resource and carry out feasibility studies into a stand-alone mining and processing project.”