After polishing off a phase-one drilling program at its Bluebird copper-gold deposit within the Barkly project, 45km to the east of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, Tennant Minerals (ASX: TMS) is poised to launch into a second campaign.
The company says the new work is aiming to hit newly-identified mineralised structures that appear similar to Bluebird along the 2.5km Bluebird-Perseverance corridor. It includes a tantalising target called Perseverance that is 1.5km west of Bluebird.
The second campaign features a deep diamond hole – with the Northern Territory Government stumping up half the cost – to explore Perseverance, where previous results shone with high-grade gold of up to 3m at 50 grams per tonne and 3m at 43.2g/t. Simultaneously, Tennant has also continued to map and sample other potential drill targets within its Barkly grounds using data from the high-grade Bluebird deposit to guide its efforts.
Recent metallurgical test results from the Bluebird copper-gold discovery show promising recoveries. Mineralisation is mainly made up of intense hematite alteration and brecciation, which is typical of the area, with malachite, native copper and visible gold in the upper oxides and sulphides such as chalcocite, bornite and chalcopyrite in the primary ore zone.
Tennant’s ultimate goal is to develop a simple processing route for high-margin copper and gold concentrates. To that end, the company’s consultant, Strategic Metallurgy, has said that a commercial process plant could produce a copper concentrate of between 24 and 29 per cent copper, with more than a 90 per cent recovery – which would be economic.
Gold recovery in the copper concentrate ranges from 58 to 79 per cent, which the company hopes to improve with ongoing work to test flotation tails.
Tennant Creek, as an area of exploration, has a rich history of mammoth gold and copper discoveries, with fabled gold mines such as the million-plus-ounce Nobles Nob, Juno and Peko lying less than 20km to the west of the company’s leases. Notoriously hard to find because of their small but highly-mineralised nature, new “elephant” discoveries are likely to still be out there for the finding, which is why the up-and-coming Perseverance target is so enticing.
By continuing exploration at the Barkly project, with a focus on Bluebird and the Bluebird-Perseverance corridor, Tennant’s dual objectives for the rest of the year are to extend the high-grade copper-gold mineralisation at Bluebird and to test new targets.
If the company is able to extend the current 350m strike length of Bluebird by another 200m, for example, it may be enough to develop a stand-alone mining and processing operation at the Barkly project. But if one of the new targets such as the promising Perseverance comes up trumps as a Nobles Nob or June lookalike, then watch out – things could then get very interesting, indeed.
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