With its eyes firmly set on the Bluebird prospect, Blina Minerals has kicked off its first RC drilling campaign at the high-grade Barkly gold-copper project near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.
As part of its early efforts on the ground, the WA-based explorer will drill 1,320 metres across six holes to test Bluebird’s down-dip/plunge extensions and the extensions to the prospect’s high-grade mineralisation as it follows up on previous historic significant gold-copper-bismuth intersections.
Blina is initially targeting a 600m copper anomaly overlaying a zone of gold-copper-bismuth mineralisation, which starts at less than 50m below surface and currently has an identified strike length of 120m and a vertical depth of at least 150m.
The company gained access to this NT mineral real estate courtesy of a 50% interest in unlisted Australian explorer, Colour Minerals, which it acquired earlier this year from Kalgoorlie Mine Management.
The rich historic Tennant Creek mineral province is known for its iron-oxide-copper-gold-deposits and Blina’s Barkly appears to have the right address given the region has already yielded more than 5.5 million ounces of gold and 470,000t of copper from ore grading 19.3 grams/tonne gold and 2.9% copper.
Whilst this makes it one of the highest-grade goldfields in Australia, curiously, only 8% of the historical drilling has gone below 50m.
Traditionally, the ironstone-hosted deposits found in this region have been discovered from typical outcrops and the usual application of aeromagnetic techniques combined with gravity surveys.
Bluebird’s mineralisation, whilst typical of the Tennant Creek model insofar as it is copper rich closer to surface and transitions to gold as it gets deeper, is a little different in that it does not outcrop – there is no expression of it at surface as the weathering profile appears to be strongly leached in the top 40m of cover.
Given this lack of outcropping and the presence of overburden, Blina is confident that Bluebird may have been overlooked by previous explorers.
The current RC drilling program is designed to test the interpreted high-grade gold position on the lower ironstone contact, the extension of the primary gold-copper-bismuth mineralisation at depth and the lateral extents of the closer-to-surface supergene enrichment zone.
According to Blina, additional exploration targets with similar geophysical and geochemical responses have been identified along strike from Bluebird and will also feel the drill bit in coming months.
Tennant Creek represents a new and exciting opportunity for Blina and the relatively under-explored nature of the ground below about 50m deep just might provide a touch of excitement for Blina shareholders as the numbers start to roll in.
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