New Drilling Program at Bluebird High-Grade Gold Zone
Tennant Minerals Limited (ASX:TMS)
➢ A new diamond drilling program has commenced at the Bluebird high-grade copper-gold discovery.
➢ The program aims to define and extend the gold zone and generate drill core for test-work to optimise gold as well as copper, silver and bismuth processing and recovery - to build on the very successful initial test-work which produced copper recoveries of up to 90%2.
➢ The drilling is testing the under-drilled gold zone at the base of the recently announced Cu-Au-Ag-Bi Mineral Resource1, which previously produced the following high-grade gold (& copper) intersections:
- 30.5m @ 6.8 g/t Au, 6.2% Cu from 153.6m incl. 17.8m @ 11.5 g/t Au, 5.2% Cu (BBDD0018) 3
- 24m @ 11.8 g/t Au, 0.66% Cu from 161m incl. 5.7m @ 49.3 g/t Au, 0.74% Cu(BBDD0021) 4
- 16.45m @ 2.31 g/t Au, 3.05% Cu from 203.65m incl. 3.8m @ 9.08 g/t Au, 0.87% Cu (BBDD0025) 5
- 17.95m @ 11.1 g/t Au, 2.7% Cu from 131m incl. 5.1m @ 38.6 g/t Au, 6.1% Cu, 4.5% Bi (BBDD0026) 6
➢ The recently announced open-pit Mineral Resource of 1.58Mt @ 3.0% CuEq* (1.30% Cu, 1.04g/t Au, 2.67g/t Ag, 839 g/t Bi)1 is open to the west and at depth. At the current gold price (>US$4,200/oz), the value of the gold in the Mineral Resource has increased to be similar or greater than the copper value.
➢ This drilling will test and potentially extend the gold zone, which projects down plunge below the current open-pit resource zone and shows potential for expanded underground resource extensions1 (see Image 1 below – rig setup on new hole BBDD0049).
Tennant Minerals Ltd (“Tennant Minerals” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce commencement of a new drilling program designed to further test and expand the high-grade gold zone of the Bluebird discovery. The drilling will generate drill core for a new testing program to optimise processing and recovery of gold as well as copper, silver and bismuth within the recently announced Bluebird Mineral Resource of:
• 1.58 million tonnes @ 3.00% Copper Equivalent (CuEq*) (1.30% Cu, 1.04g/t Au, 2.67g/t Ag, 839g/t Bi) containing 47,400t CuEq* (20,600t Cu, 52,900oz Au, 135,600oz Ag & 1,326t Bi), incl:
- Indicated Resource: 1,070,000t @ 3.43% CuEq* (1.43% Cu, 1.26g/t Au, 3.47g/t Ag, 824g/t Bi) containing 36,800t CuEq* (15,400t Cu, 43,500oz Au, 119,300 oz Ag, 882t Bi)
- Inferred Resource: 510,000t @ 2.08% CuEq* (1.02% Cu, 0.57g/t Au, 0.99g/t Ag, 871g/t Bi) containing 10,600t CuEq* (5,200t Cu, 9,400oz Au, 16,300Oz Ag, 444t Bi)
The Bluebird open-pit Mineral Resource currently includes 52,900 oz of gold and at the current gold price of over US$4,200/oz, the potential value of the gold in the Mineral Resource has increased substantially to be similar to or greater than the copper value. The value of gold in the Indicated Resource (78% of the contained copper-equivalent metal) is greater than the value of copper in the Indicated Resource.
The planned diamond drillholes are shown below in Figures 1a and 1b - cross-sections 448,280mE and 448,320mE, below. Figures 2 and 3 illustrate the planned drilling in plan-view and long-section/projection.
The gold zone is under-drilled and projects down plunge, below the current open-pit resource zone where there is potential to expand this zone (see Figures 2, 3 and 5). Better definition and expansion of the gold zone, as well as enhanced metallurgical recovery, may allow the Company to extend the Mineral Resource below the current open-pit depth limit of 180m below surface (see Figure 3).
The new drilling will include pre-collars and up to 400m of diamond tails and will aim to better define and expand the current gold zone. The drilling will also produce HQ drill core for a bulk sample for an advanced metallurgical test-work program focussed on enhancing and optimising gold recovery. The previous flotation test-work was on copper rich, lower gold grade core from diamond drillholes BBDD0045 and BBDD0046. This work demonstrated excellent copper recoveries of up to 90% into concentrate grading 24 to 29% copper2. Gold reporting to the copper concentrate showed recoveries of up to 79% Au2.
The drilling is expected to be completed within three to four weeks with logging and sampling to start during the drilling phase of the program. The Company expects to dispatch samples to Perth for analysis before Christmas.
READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT HERE
About us:
Tennant Minerals Limited (ASX:TMS) is a successful exploration and development company with a strong track record of discovery in the Tennant Creek area of the Northern Territory.
Tennant Mineral’s key assets are the Barkly and Babbler Copper-Gold Projects, located approximately 45km east of the major copper-gold mineral field of Tennant Creek. The Company focus is the expansion and delineation of the greenfield Bluebird high-grade copper-gold discovery.
Tennant Minerals is accelerating to grow the discovery through drilling then establish Mineral Resources and drive the project through to development.
To learn more, please visit: https://tennantminerals.com/
Contact details:
For enquiries please contact:
Chris Ramsay
GM Geology
+61 8 9481 7833
Tanya Newby
Joint Company Secretary
T: +61 (8) 9481 7833