Tennant Minerals Ltd (“Tennant Minerals”) 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.
Diamond Drilling Rig at the Bluebird High-Grade Copper-Gold-Silver-Bismuth Discovery (Barkly Project). Image Credit: Tennant Minerals Limited
The drilling will generate drill core for a new testing program to optimize processing and recovery of gold as well as copper, silver and bismuth within the recently announced Bluebird Mineral Resource of:
- 1.58 million tons @ 3.00 % Copper Equivalent (CuEq) (1.30 % Cu, 1.04 g/t Au, 2.67 g/t Ag, 839 g/t Bi) containing 47,400 t CuEq (20,600 t Cu, 52,900 oz Au, 135,600 oz Ag & 1,326 t Bi), incl:
- Indicated Resource: 1,070,000 t @ 3.43 % CuEq (1.43 % Cu, 1.26 g/t Au, 3.47 g/t Ag, 824 g/t Bi) containing 36,800 t CuEq (15,400 t Cu, 43,500o z Au, 119,300 oz Ag, 882t Bi)
- Inferred Resource: 510,000 t @ 2.08 % CuEq (1.02 % Cu, 0.57 g/t Au, 0.99 g/t Ag, 871 g/t Bi) containing 10,600 t CuEq (5,200 t Cu, 9,400 oz Au, 16,300 Oz Ag, 444 t 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 448,280 mE and 448,320 mE, 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 180 m below surface (see Figure 3).
The new drilling will include pre-collars and up to 400 m 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 optimizing 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 % copper. Gold reporting to the copper concentrate showed recoveries of up to 79 % Au.
Figure 1a. Cross Section 448,280 mE. Image Credit: Tennant Minerals Limited
Figure 1b. Cross Section 448,320 mE. Image Credit: Tennant Minerals Limited
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.
Figure 2. Plan view of Bluebird showing Mineral Resource block-model (OCT 2025), planned drill-collar locations and projected drill trace on gravity inversion model, existing drilling, and projected western extension target zone. Image Credit: Tennant Minerals Limited
Figure 3. Bluebird Long-section showing new Mineral Resource block-model (OCT 2025), planned drilling pierce points on slice plane of gravity inversion model and projected plunging target mineralization/ironstone target zone. Image Credit: Tennant Minerals Limited