Tennant to launch into two large-scale Top End gold targets
The company's Babbler gold and Wedge copper-gold prospects sit near its flagship Barkly copper-gold project, about 35 kilometres east of the Top End's renowned Tennant Creek mining region.
Babbler sits on a prominent positive magnetic anomaly adjacent to a gravity low. A series of percussion drill holes were hammered about 50 metres apart into its ground in the 1970s by the former mining company, Noblex. Some drill holes were followed up with diamond tails to test deeper geophysical anomalies.
The drilling program identified widespread gold anomalism and significant intercepts of more than 0.15 grams per tonne (g/t) gold across a one square kilometre area.
'No significant exploration has been conducted on the project since (the 1970s), possibly because the host rocks were not typical of the Tennant Creek-style copper-gold mineralisation targets at the time.'
Tennant Minerals chief executive officer Vincent Algar
Historic gold results from the drill program consisted of 13m grading 0.48g/t from 90m, including 7m at 0.68g/t from 94m, 22m running 0.42g/t from 33m, including 6m at 0.61g/t from 33m, a promising 3m slice going 2.91g/t from 71m and a 14m section at 0.31g/t gold from 81m.
A further hole returned anomalous copper and gold, assaying 12m at 0.57g/t gold from 6m, including 3m grading 0.51g/t gold, and 453 parts per million (ppm) copper from 86m. The hole also returned a 56m copper interval going 251ppm from 49m, with 2m at 855ppm from 72m and 2m at 1200ppm copper from 92m.
The gold grades were considered too low for follow-up at the time, due to production demands in the area and a subdued gold price.
Tennant believes the widespread gold anomalism outlines a potential kilometre-scale gold system target that is now worth investigating.
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