Tennant Minerals Ltd. has discovered an exceptional intersection of gold, bismuth and copper at its Bluebird discovery on the Barkly project in the Northern Territory.
The new diamond drilling intersection in BBDD0050 included 18 metres of intense hematite-quartz and jasper-sulphide breccia mineralisation with native copper, bismuth sulphides and specks of visible gold, which shows potential to extend this high-grade zone.
The intersection produced assay results of up to 42.6 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold, 12.2 per cent bismuth and 9.6 per cent copper.
While the gold and copper grades are impressive, the spectacular bismuth levels have caught the company’s attention. Bismuth is currently trading at record highs of approximately AU$67,000 per tonne following strict export controls implemented by China in 2025.
Tennant Minerals General Manager Chris Ramsay said: “This exceptional intersection of gold, bismuth and copper has highlighted the potential to define and extend the high-grade gold with copper and bismuth zone, which is open to the west and down-plunge of the open pit mineral resource.
“The very high bismuth grades, alongside the high gold and copper intervals, makes this a truly stand-out intersection. This offers an opportunity to establish a substantially larger resource base, with potential to more than double the Bluebird footprint.”
The new results extend the known mineralisation down-plunge and to the west of the existing open-pit mineral resource. Importantly, the zone remains open to the west, where it aligns with a large “gravity high” anomaly.
This suggests the mineralised ironstone could continue for another 400 metres, potentially dwarfing the current discovery area.
Tennant Minerals has already applied for Northern Territory government co-funding to test this massive western target.
Located on the eastern edge of the historic Tennant Creek Mineral Field, which has produced 5.5 million ounces of gold since the 1930s, Bluebird is rapidly emerging as the region’s next major high-grade producer.
Due to the presence of coarse gold and native copper in the drill core, the company is performing specialised screen fire assays to ensure the full value of the samples is captured. These refined results are expected within the one to two weeks.
