The Babbler area has good outcrop comprising volcanic and sedimentary Paleo-Proterozoic Ooradidgee group rocks. It is close to the contact with, and overlies, the Lower Proterozoic Warramunga group, which hosts most known copper-gold mines and prospects within the Tennant Creek mineral field.
Notably, recent work by the NT Geological Survey highlights the potential for multiple styles of precious and base metal mineralisation at the complex contact, representing an angular unconformity of the Warramunga and Ooradidgee connection.
Large-scale northwest to southeast crosscutting structures intersect close to the anomalous gold area, further increasing the companyโs interest in the prospects.
Tennant Minerals chief executive officer Vincent Algar said: โAt Babbler, the logging of pyrite and chlorite alteration within felsic volcanics in wide-spaced diamond drillholes during the 1970s containing elevated gold values is considered highly encouraging for the presence of a large gold system in the area. No significant exploration has been conducted on the project since then, possibly because the host rocks were not typical of the Tennant Creek-style copper-gold mineralisation targets at the time.โ
Algar said in todayโs high gold price environment, and given the significant advances in the treatment of gold ores, the company believes the size and level of anomalism of the gold targets demand significant follow-up activity.
The Wedge copper-gold prospect is a discrete 1.5km by 650m fault-bounded block of Lower Proterozoic Warramunga group rocks with visible ironstone and gossan development. It is on a 3km south-southeast offset from the highly mineralised Golden Mile-Perseverance-Bluebird trend.
Soil targets identified significant anomalous copper, iron and bismuth. The historical geophysical target has been confirmed by new auger and rock chip sampling, in addition to newly acquired gravity survey data.
Rock chip sampling returned up to 56 per cent iron, 150ppm copper, 6ppm silver and 112ppm bismuth.
Tennant plans to further map the targets before a widespread, shallow reverse circulation drill program is conducted to test the Babbler and Wedge prospects. The company will also test the promising, recently interpreted sub-surface copper anomaly identified at Bluebird East.
Wide-spaced reverse circulation drilling is considered a more suitable method than geochemical soil sampling, which can yield low-level anomalism in transported cover.
Management says it is progressing its collaboration with local firms Emmerson Resources and CuFe on a shared copper-gold facility in the region and is finalising a scoping study for Bluebirdโs development.
Bluebird has produced several eye-popping discoveries within its Barkly project, with a best 61.8m hit at 2.3 per cent copper and 0.4g/t gold and a further 63m section at 2.1 per cent copper and 4.6g/t gold.
The company believes Bluebird has similar potential to other high-grade deposits discovered at Tennant Creek, such as the historically significant Warrego deposit, with its 6.75 million tonnes at 6.6g/t gold and 1.9 per cent copper, and ASX-listed Elmore Limitedโs Peko 3.7Mt deposit going 4 per cent copper and 3.5g/t gold.
The Tennant Creek mineral field has a past production of 25Mt at 6.9g/t gold for 5.5 million ounces and 2.8 per cent copper to produce 700,000t of the red metal.
With a history of head-turning finds in the Tennant Creek region, the company will be hoping the two prospects it plans to target can produce more of the same.
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