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Further Drilling to Target Ironstone Hosted Copper-Gold Mineralisation at Depth
- Initial drill testing of three key targets, outside Bluebird, within the highly prospective 2.5km Bluebird-Perseverance Target Zone has intersected mineralised and brecciated fault structures in all three target areas. These are interpreted to lie above iron-stone hosted copper-gold targets previously identified by gravity, magnetic and Induced Polarisation (IP) low resistivity geophysics.
- At the Perseverance North target, drilling has intersected major fault zones with haematite-breccia (see Image 1 below) and mineralisation above a strong IP low-resistivity (high-conductivity) anomaly. This target is analogous to the IP low-resistivity zone associated with the Bluebird discovery, which has produced spectacular copper-gold results including 50m @ 2.7% Cu1 and 63m @ 2.1% Cu and 4.6 g/t Au2, with results to come from the recent drilling campaign.
Image 1: Mineralised haematite-breccia in fault zone at Perseverance North, PNDD002, 235 - 236m downhole
- At the Perseverance target, two drillholes testing below the historic high-grade gold mine workings (where previous results include 3m @ 50.0 g/t Au in PERC0153 and 3m @ 43.2 g/t Au in PERC0013) intersected the hanging wall structure associated with the gold mineralisation before passing into a 20-40m zone with haematite alteration and potentially copper mineralisation.
- At the Bluebird West target, haematite altered mineralised structures have also been intersected, associated with an IP low-resistivity (high-conductivity) anomaly analogous to the IP low resistivity zone associated with the Bluebird discovery.
- New IP surveys will focus on extensions of these key targets within the Bluebird-Perseverance Target Zone as well as extensions of the Bluebird mineralisation to the east and west.
- A fresh drilling program will commence as soon as possible to test for high-grade copper-gold mineralisation within these three new highly prospective target zones, in addition to further drill testing of the Bluebird discovery which remains completely open to the east, west and at depth.
Tennant Minerals Chairman Matt Driscoll commented:
“We are delighted that the latest drilling into key target zones outside Bluebird within the Bluebird-Perseverance Corridor has intersected multiple, mineralised, haematite breccia structures.
“These results reinforce our belief that the Bluebird discovery – which has produced spectacular results including 50m @ 2.7% copper and 63m @ 2.1% copper and 4.6 g/t gold – is just one of several high-grade copper-gold deposits within the Bluebird-Perseverance Target Zone.
“Our further IP programs and follow-up drilling will also help determine whether we are dealing with a major copper-gold project with potential to become a stand-alone mining and processing operation.”
Tennant Minerals Ltd (ASX:TMS) is pleased to announce that drill-testing of priority geophysical targets west of Bluebird in the “Bluebird-Perseverance Target Zone”4 (see Figure 1) has intersected multiple new zones of mineralised and haematite-altered breccias, interpreted to lie above ironstone-hosted copper-gold deposits.
Three, priority, coincident magnetic, gravity and induced polarisation (IP) low-resistivity targets were selected for initial drill-testing, including Perseverance North, Perseverance and Bluebird West (see Figure 1 below). A multi-purpose (DDH1) rig was utilised to complete eight reverse-circulation (RC) holes with six diamond tails completed, for a total of 1981.1m.
Figure 1: Bluebird-Perseverance zone bouguer gravity image with structures & gravity-magnetic-IP resistivity targets.
Perseverance North Target, strongly brecciated, haematite-altered structures intersected:
The first new target tested was Perseverance North (Figure 1), where drilling tested a coincident gravity and reversely polarised magnetic zone associated with a low resistivity/high-conductivity IP anomaly (see cross section 447,700mE, Figure 2, below). This is indicative of a mineralised structure by analogy with the low-resistivity anomaly associated with the high-grade Bluebird copper-gold discovery (see Bluebird cross section 448,360mE, Figure 3, also below).
Figure 2: Perseverance North IP low-resistivity and new drilling, section 447,700mE
Figure 3: Bluebird IP Resistivity and drilling section 448,360mE
Two pre-collared diamond drillholes tested across the IP anomaly, intersecting strongly brecciated, haematite-altered breccia lodes/structures from 225m to 240m (15m) downhole (see Image 1) and from 261m to 268m downhole. The haematite breccia structures correlate with the upper part of the low-resistivity zone detected by the IP survey (Figure 2).
The geophysical pattern observed at Perseverance North is very similar to the Bluebird discovery (Figure 3). The haematite breccia lodes intersected by PNDD0002 are interpreted to lie above potentially copper-gold mineralised ironstone, as indicated by the gravity anomaly and the thickening low-resistivity zone at depth (Figure 2).
Further IP geophysics will be carried out along strike to the east and west of the central section tested at Perseverance North to map out the low resistivity mineralised structure. Modelling of the IP results, as well as inversion depth modelling of the gravity and magnetic data, will allow the Company to refine targets for further drilling to locate the potential copper-gold mineralised “core” of this highly prospective zone (see proposed drillhole, Figure 2).
Perseverance Target:
At Perseverance, two drillholes tested below the historical gold mine workings (where previous drilling results include 3m @ 50.0 g/t Au from 42m in PERC0153 and 3m @ 43.2 g/t Au from 72m in PERC00123).
RC drillhole PVRC0001 intersected the hangingwall structure associated with the high-grade gold mineralisation before passing into a 23m zone with haematite alteration and potentially copper mineralisation from 60m to 83m downhole. The deeper diamond drillhole, PVDD0001 intersected a similar zone including haematite alteration from 90m to 130m downhole (see Appendix 1 for mineralisation descriptions).
The high gold values in previous drilling at Perseverance indicate potential for a similar discovery to the nearby Nobles Nob deposit, 20km to the west (see Figure 4), which produced 2 million tonnes of ore grading 17.3 g/t Au from 1947 to 19865.
Additional IP geophysics will be carried out along strike to the east of Perseverance to map out the low-resistivity structure. Modelling of the IP results, as well as inversion depth modelling of the gravity and magnetic data, will allow the Company to determine the depth at which the mineralised structure at Perseverance intersects the ironstone – the targeted location of a repeat of the Bluebird discovery.
Further drilling is planned to test the Perseverance structure at depth and along strike to the east, where gravity imagery and modelling indicates a link with the Bluebird discovery located 1.6km to the east of Perseverance (Figure 1).
Bluebird West Target:
At Bluebird West, haematite-altered mineralised structures have also been intersected, associated with an IP low-resistivity (high-conductivity) anomaly analogous to the IP low resistivity zone associated with the Bluebird discovery (Figure 3). Breccia filled fault zones at 234m, 254m and 276-277m downhole in BWDD0001 correlate with the upper part of the low-resistivity zone detected by the IP survey.
Further IP geophysics will be carried out along strike to the east and west of the section tested at Bluebird West to map out the low-resistivity structure. Modelling of the IP results, as well as inversion depth modelling of the gravity and magnetic anomalies, will allow the Company to refine targets for further drilling to locate a potential repeat of the Bluebird copper-gold deposit along strike and at depth within this highly prospective zone.
Other Targets within the Bluebird-Perseverance Corridor
Further IP geophysics will be carried out east of the Bluebird discovery, where previous shallow drilling produced highly anomalous copper and gold results associated with extensions of the east-south-east (see Figure 1 and location, Figure 4).
Step-out IP sections will also be carried out west of Bluebird to target drilling to extend the mineralisation, which remains completely open to the west and at depth (see longitudinal projection, Figure 5).
The gravity high associated with the Bluebird discovery continues east and west of Bluebird, linking with the Perseverance Target zone, which indicates potential for multiple high-grade copper-gold deposits within a major, more than 2km strike-length, mineralised corridor (Figure 1).
ABOUT THE BARKLY PROJECT AND THE BLUEBIRD COPPER-GOLD DISCOVERY
The high-grade Bluebird copper-gold discovery is located within the Company’s 100% owned Barkly Project, at the eastern edge of the Tennant Creek (copper-gold) Mineral Field (TCMF), which produced over 5Moz of gold and over 500kt of copper from 1934 to 20055 (see Figure 4 below).
Figure 4: Location of the Barkly Project and major historical mines in the Tennant Creek Mineral Field
The latest diamond drilling intersections in the Stage 2 drilling program (see longitudinal projection of Bluebird discovery, Figure 5) have extended the thick high-grade dilational zone of mineralisation at Bluebird 120m to the west of the Stage 1 high-grade copper-gold intersections (total now 240m strike-length and open in all directions) previously announced by the Company1,2, which include:
- 63.0m @ 2.1% Cu and 4.6g/t Au from 153m (down hole) in BBDD00122 (448,360mE)
- including 40.0m @ 3.0% Cu and 7.3g/t Au from 155.0m,
- including 27.55m @ 3.6% Cu and 10.0g/t Au from 160.45m.
- 40m @ 2.6% Cu and 1.34g/t Au from 131m (down hole) in BDD00136 (448,340mE)
- including 24.5m @ 3.9% Cu and 0.45g/t Au from 146.5m,
- including 4.75m @ 15.2% Cu and 0.36g/t Au from 164m.
- 50.0m @ 2.7% Cu and 0.52 g/t Au from 158m (down hole) in BBDD00071 (448,380mE)
- including 24.0m @ 5.01% Cu and 1.01 g/t Au from 159m,
- including 4.3m @ 14.7% Cu and 3.10 g/t Au from 176.6m.
The most recent drilling which targeted depth extensions of the Bluebird deposit produced results including 17.8m @ 3.7% Cu, 0.34g/t Au from 277m (including 9.5m @ 6.0% Cu) in BBDD00156, which indicates proximity to a second dilational (thickened) zone target at depth (see cross section 448,360mE, Figure 6).
Figure 5: Bluebird longitudinal projection with high-grade copper-gold results to date and latest intersections.
The results of the IP program carried out at Bluebird revealed a distinct low-resistivity (high conductivity) and coincident chargeability response corresponding with the Bluebird mineralisation on the central section 448,360mE (see cross section, Figure 2 and Figure 6 below), thus confirming that Bluebird can be detected with IP. This section includes the BBDD0012 intersection of 63m @ 2.1% Cu, 4.6g/t Au2 and the IP low-resistivity zone indicates continuity below 400m depth (see Figure’s 5 and 6).
Interpretation of the key drilling intersections, utilising structural data from logging of drill core, indicates that the thick and high-grade copper and gold intersections in BBDD00122 and BBDD00136, as well as the massive copper sulphide mineralisation in BBDD00187 (results pending) and the recent intersections in BBDD00218 and BBDD00259 (results pending), are associated with structures that have intersected the axis of a shallow-plunging anticline, generating a thick dilational mineralised zone (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Bluebird cross section 448,360mE showing key intersections and anticlinal dilational “roll-over” zone.
The Stage 2 drilling program built on the successful Stage 1 diamond drilling program. A total of 16 holes for more than 4,321m were drilled in Stage 2 (see Tables 1 and 2 below), which extended the Bluebird discovery along strike and at depth, where it remains completely open. Drilling also tested priority targets for extensions/repeats of the high-grade copper-gold zone along strike to the west within the Bluebird-Perseverance Target Zone, as described in this release (Figure 1).
The Company’s strategy is to identify multiple, multi-million tonne, high-grade copper-gold deposits within the Barkly Project, sufficient to establish a standalone copper-gold mining and processing project.
Following receipt of results from the successful Stage 2 drilling program, including from the massive chalcopyrite zone intersected in BBDD0018 (32.5m intensely haematite-copper mineralised zone including 7m of 60% massive chalcopyrite)7, a third stage of drilling will be carried out - focussed in two key areas:
i) Bluebird Copper-Gold Discovery:
Extension and deeper drilling is planned to extend and define the Bluebird high-grade copper-gold discovery to the east and west as well as to greater than 400m depth, targeting a Mineral Resource of several million tonnes of high-grade copper-gold mineralisation (>3% copper equivalent).
ii) Priority Targets in Bluebird Perseverance Corridor:
Testing of additional targets generated by the extension and infill IP program as well as deeper drilling on key sections drilled during the Stage 2 program (e.g. Perseverance North and Perseverance), targeting further high-grade copper-gold discoveries.
Drilling will commence as soon as possible following the northern wet season.
Table 1 below includes Bluebird – Perseverance Priority Targets Stage 2 drillhole details :
Hole # | Dip° | Az Grid° | GRID_E | GRID_N | RL | RC (m) | DDC (m) | Depth (m) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PNDD0001 | -65 | 0 | 447,000 | 7,827,450 | 330 | 91.1 | 149.5 | 240.6 |
PNDD0002 | -65 | 0 | 447,000 | 7,827,400 | 330 | 179.9 | 148.7 | 328.6 |
PNDD0003 | -65 | 0 | 447,118 | 7,827,507 | 330 | 119.8 | 120.6 | 240.4 |
PNDD0004 | -65 | 0 | 447,118 | 7,827,448 | 330 | 179.8 | 129.7 | 309.5 |
Bluebird West | ||||||||
BWDD0001 | -65 | 0 | 447,899 | 7,827,253 | 335 | 120.1 | 195.4 | 315.5 |
BWRC0001 | -65 | 0 | 447,902 | 7,827,191 | 335 | 186.0 | nil | 186.0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PVDD0001 | -65 | 0 | 447,398 | 7,827,043 | 335 | 60.5 | 180 | 240.5 |
PVRC0001 | -55 | 0 | 447,398 | 7,827,045 | 335 | 120.0 | nil | 120.0 |
Total |
|
|
|
|
| 1057.2 | 923.9 | 1981.1 |
Table 2 below includes Bluebird Stage 2 drillhole details :
Hole # | Dip° | Az Grid° | GRID_E | GRID_N | RL | Mud (m) | DDC (m) | Depth (m) |
BBDD0018 | -65 | 0 | 448,320 | 7,827,050 | 332 | 62.7 | 184.1 | 246.8 |
BBDD0019 | -65 | 0 | 448,360 | 7,826,990,052 | 332 | 41.4 | 406.3 | 447.7 |
BBDD0020 | -65 | 0 | 448,340 | 7,826,960,072 | 332 | 54.9 | 77.8 | 132.7 |
BBDD0021 | -65 | 0 | 448,280 | 7,827,050 | 332 | 80.0 | 211.5 | 291.5 |
BBDD0022 | -60 | 0 | 448,360 | 7,826,998,010 | 332 | 40.1 | 336.4 | 376.5 |
BBDD0023 | -65 | 0 | 448,240 | 7,827,050 | 332 | 81.0 | 174.0 | 255.0 |
BBDD0024 | -65 | 0 | 448,240 | 7,827,030 | 332 | 47.8 | 204.7 | 252.7 |
BBDD0025 | -65 | 0 | 448,280 | 7,827,030 | 332 | 50.8 | 256.1 | 306.9 |
Total |
|
|
|
|
| 458.7 | 1,881.1 | 2,339.8 |
Appendix 1 includes descriptions of the geology and mineralisation intersected during the regional targets diamond drilling program and Appendix 2 includes JORC Table 1, Sections 1 and 2.
REFERENCES
1 08 March 2022. Tennant Minerals (ASX. TMS): “Spectacular 50m @ 2.70% copper intersection at Bluebird”
2 17/08/2022. Tennant Minerals (ASX. TMS): “Bonanza 63m@ 2.1% Copper and 4.6 g/t Gold Intersection at Bluebird”.
3 25/02/1995, Posgold. Final Report for Exploration Licence 7693, 2/6/92 to 25/11/94. NTGS Report CR19950192.
4 25/08/2022. Tennant Minerals (ASX. TMS): “Standout Geophysical Targets to Replicate Bluebird Cu-Au Discovery”.
5 Portergeo.com.au/database/mineinfo. Tennant Creek - Gecko, Warrego, White Devil, Nobles Nob, Juno, Peko, Argo.
6 07/09/2022. Tennant Minerals (ASX. TMS): “Up to 54.5% Cu in Massive Sulphides at Bluebird”.
7 28/10/2022. Tennant Minerals (ASX.TMS): “Massive Chalcopyrite Intersected at Bluebird”.
8 21/11/2022. Tennant Minerals (ASX.TMS): “Drilling Doubles Strike-Length of Bluebird Copper-Gold”
7 14/12/2022. Tennant Minerals (ASX.TMS): “Intensely Copper-Mineralised Drill-Hits Extend Bluebird”
***ENDS***
For enquiries please contact:
Matthew Driscoll
Non-Executive Chairman
M: +61 (0) 417 041 725
Stuart Usher
Company Secretary
M: +61 (0) 499 900 044
Andrew Rowell
White Noise Communications
M: +61 (0) 400 466 226
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION
This release contains forward-looking statements concerning Tennant Minerals Ltd. Forward-looking statements are not statements of historical fact and actual events and results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors could cause the Company’s actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking information provided by the Company, or on behalf of, the Company. Such factors include, among other things, risks relating to additional funding requirements, metal prices, exploration, development and operating risks, competition, production risks, regulatory restrictions, including environmental regulation and liability and potential title disputes.
Forward looking statements in this release are based on the company’s beliefs, opinions and estimates of Tennant Minerals Ltd as of the dates the forward-looking statements are made, and no obligation is assumed to update forward looking statements if these beliefs, opinions and estimates should change or to reflect other future developments.
COMPETENT PERSONS DECLARATION
The information in this report that relates to exploration results is based on information compiled and/or reviewed by Mr Jonathon Dugdale. Mr Dugdale is the Technical Advisor to Tennant Minerals Ltd and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (‘FAusIMM’). Mr Dugdale has sufficient experience, including over 35 years’ experience in exploration, resource evaluation, mine geology, development studies and finance, relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposits under consideration to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (‘JORC’) Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Minerals Resources and Ore Reserves. Mr Dugdale consents to the inclusion in this report of the matters based on this information in the form and context in which it appears.
ASX LISTING RULES COMPLIANCE
In preparing this announcement the Company has relied on the announcements previously made by the Company and specifically dated 09 December 2014, 24 September 2019, 18 March 2020, 06 December 2021, 13 December 2021, 21 December 2021, 8 March 2022, 15 March 2022, 24 March 2022, 4 April 2022 13 May 2022, 6 June 2022, 6 July 2022, 17 August 2022, 25 August 2022, 7 September 2022, 13 October 2022 and 28 October 2022 31 October 2022, 21 November 2022 and 14 December 2022. The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects those announcements previously made, or that would materially affect the Company from relying on those announcements for the purpose of this announcement.
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