Middle Island Resources has increased its tenement holdings in the Northern Territory after entering into a binding agreement with ASX-listed Strategic Energy Resources to purchase its East Tennant project.
The acquisition will expand the company’s Barkly super project in the region and adds 1319 square kilometres of ground to take its total tenement area to an impressive 6753sq km. Strategic Energy has already identified several high-priority targets within the East Tennant project, in a region considered highly-prospective for copper-gold and lead-zinc-silver mineralisation.
In line with the agreement, Middle Island proposes to purchase 100 per cent of the East Tennant project for 18.24 million of its fully-paid ordinary shares at a deemed price of 3.5 cents per share. The addition of six more tenements to its already large Barkly super project builds on the company’s current portfolio and delivers valuable new targets that are ready to be drilled.
Middle Island Resources chief executive officer Roland Bartsch said: “The proposed purchase of the East Tennant Project by MDI will expand the Barkly Super Project’s already considerable land position and target list, and is an exciting addition to MDI’s exposure to potential exploration success across the region.”
The Barkly super project currently comprises 11 granted exploration licence applications covering 4343.49sq km and five pending applications covering a further 1190.1sq km within the NT’s Barkly region.
Middle Island plunged four diamond drill holes into its Crosswinds prospect at the project last year, searching for the source of outcropping copper oxide mineralisation that yielded portable XRF readings of between 24.8 per cent and an astounding 76.2 per cent copper.
Crosswinds sits just 5km south of Emmerson Resources’ high-grade Hermitage discovery that returned a stunning 116m hit going 3.38 per cent copper and 0.88 grams per tonne gold in 2021. More recently, Emmerson delivered an additional 94.4m grading 2.74 per cent copper, 5.58g/t gold, 17.88g/t silver and 0.44 per cent bismuth from 85m.
Middle Island is on the hunt for iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposits that are highly sought-after mineral systems due to their potentially high metal content.
Australia has two major IOCG provinces of global significance – namely, the Olympic IOCG province along the eastern margin of the Gawler Craton in South Australia and the Cloncurry district in the eastern Mount Isa Inlier of north-west Queensland.
Geoscience Australia says the historic Tennant Creek mining district is best known for its ancient and high-grade gold deposits, having produced 5.5 million ounces of gold, 488,000 tonnes of copper and 5000 tonnes of bismuth at an average grade of 19.3 grams per tonne gold and 2.9 per cent copper.
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By Michael Philipps
