Tennant Minerals jumps on 63m high-grade copper and gold hit; bonanza grades logged

Tennant Minerals (ASX:TMS) is up 15% in lunchtime trade to 4.5c as the company flags its discovery of a huge core sample including bonanza grade gold and high grade copper. 

The diamond drillhole from which the core was extracted was sunk at the Bluebird copper-gold prospect at the company’s Barkly project within the Tennant Creek Mineral Field in the NT. 

The bluebird prospect sits within a 5km long corridor originally identified in geotechnical imaging surveys. 

The discovery zone at Bluebird remains open to the west below 200m depth; the target also boasts 12 so-far untested magnetic targets for future exploration. 

Two historical copper-gold projects are located nearby Bluebird, including the now defunct Peko mine (3.7 million tonnes at 4% copper and 3.5 grams of gold per tonne) and the now defunct Nobles Nob mine (2 million tonnes at 17.3 grams of gold per tonne.) 

What has Tennant found at Bluebird? 

To make sense of today’s results, and the output of the historical projects named above, it’s worth noting investor information provider Undervalued Equity notes high grade gold is considered that over five grams of gold per tonne (g/t). 

Many Australian projects boasting grades of 4g/t are also considered high-grade.

Copper, meanwhile, is considered high grade in concentrations over 1.5%.

Tennant is reporting: 

• 63m @ 2.1% Copper and 4.6g/t gold from 153m depth 

  • 40.0m @ 3.0% copper and 7.3g/t gold from 155m 

  • 27.5m @ 3.6% copper and 10g/t gold from 160m 

  • 07.0m @ 1.4% copper and 38.5g/t gold from 181m 

The company is also awaiting the return of further assay results; today’s revelation of bonanza grades on-site is the first batch of assay data deliverable to the company. Ongoing delays at laboratories are hampering operations sector-wide. 

Management confident in Bluebird 

“The latest results are stunning,” Tennant Minerals chairman Matthew Driscoll said. 

“We have discovered a distinct high-grade gold shoot within the mineralised zone with [bonanza] grades of up to 38.5 grams per tonne of gold.” 

“In addition to Bluebird, we have identified at least 12 untested targets with a similar signature to Bluebird along the 5km corridor…this is an exciting time for the company and its shareholders as we await the remaining results from our latest drilling program at Bluebird.” 

The company sunk six holes in its latest diamond drill run. 

One thing it hasn't yet addressed: how exactly it intends to access the gold trapped nearly 200m underground.

Decent cash position 

At the end of June, Tennant Minerals held $4.7m in cash, and spent $0.5m in opex over the quarter. 

The company has a market cap of $27m and is ranked 460 of 912 companies in the materials sector. 

One year returns for Tennant shareholders are currently up 55.17%; year to date (YTD) performance is up 28.57%.

Tennant's three month charts reflect a sharp upward reversal of shareholder enthusiasm since early August