Tennant Minerals (ASX: TMS) is marching forward with exploration works at its Barkly project in the Northern Territory, as ongoing campaigns looks to unearth lookalikes of its Bluebird copper and gold discovery and test other nearby high grade gold targets.
The company has already unveiled a string of significant intercepts at the prospect including a 61.8m hit grading 2.3 per cent copper in one hole, and 14.1m at 7.6 per cent copper and 2.4 grams per tonne gold in another.
Previous drilling at Bluebird also returned 30.5m at 6.2 per cent copper and 6.8 g/t gold, as well as other notable hits.
Drilling programs have helpedto classify Bluebird as one of the most important new discoveries in the Tennant Creek area for decades, and help define a high-grade resource to move it closer to production.
Collaborative path to copper and gold production
In this regard, the company has teamed up with its neighbours in the historical Tennant Creek mineral field to form a three-way strategic alliance to evaluate development opportunities for their respective projects.
More specifically, this collaboration between Tennant Minerals, Emmerson Resources, and CuFe Limited is exploring optimal production solutions, including the viability of a single multi-user processing facility that could collectively lead to a larger and more financially attractive mining operation.
The proposed shared facility is akin to the way the Tennant Creek mineral field operated historically with several high-grade mines feeding the centralised processing facilities through a ‘hub and spoke’ operational model.
The parties already control a combined 7.3 million tonne mineral resource grading 1.7 per cent copper and 0.6g/t gold. This equates to a sizable 145,000 ounces of contained gold and 127,000 tonnes of copper attributable to CuFe Resources.
These resources do not include the Bluebird discovery or Emmerson’s Hermitage project where drilling returned 119m at 3.3 per cent copper and 0.87 g/t gold, as well as 94.4m at 2.74 per cent copper and 5.58 g/t gold.
Potential for fast-tracked development
Broadly speaking, this “landmark” agreement is designed to fast-track development with multi-user infrastructure providing significant economic benefits over moving individual resources to production on a stand-alone basis.
It also creates incentive for all three companies to target fresh high-grade copper and gold discoveries in the Tennant Creek mineral field.
The three ASX listed companies are weighing up a series of operational considerations such as the optimal processing plant configuration and its location, mine scheduling, infrastructure requirements, and environmental conditions.
The Alliance also plans to complete a scoping study comprising of the wholly owned Emmerson and Tennant Minerals deposits, as well as CuFe’s 55 per cent controlled joint venture projects.
Subsequently, the partners are eyeing a pre-feasibility study to gauge the merits of bringing the combined deposits to production in an optimal manner. Potential synergies with other explorers and developers in the region will also be investigated.
Government support
The co-operative intent of the strategic alliance has gained endorsement from the Northern Territory government after the Alliance recently received a letter of support from the Mines Minister.
Here, Minister Gerard Maley indicated that the Northern Territory government understands the potential for the alliance to deliver economic benefits to the Barkly region, and more broadly to Australia.
Tennant Minerals managing director, Vincent Algar, commented:
“The production history of Tennant Creek copper and gold supports the shared facility model we plan to investigate in this collaboration. The strategy will provide a shorter pathway to production and incentivise TMS to continue its exploration effort targeting further discoveries like Bluebird on our tenements.”
Prolific geological terrane
Historically, the Tennant Creek mineral field churned out more than 5.5 million ounces of gold and over 700,000 tonnes of copper since commencing production in 1934.
The collaboration between Tennant Minerals, Emmerson, and CuFe appears to be a key development in bringing this richly endowed geological terrane back to life. And the Bluebird discovery could play an integral role in the revival of this “world class” mineral field.
On a wider scale, Tennant Minerals has defined an ironstone corridor stretching for 5km across its wider Barkly tenure. It believes this structure has potential for hosting multiple copper and gold discoveries.
The company expects to release results from its recent drilling campaign at Barkly in upcoming weeks.