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- Contract awarded for preliminary metallurgical test work on Lightning gold project
- Requested sample material delivered to Welshpool processing facility
- Prior geological assessment indicates gold does not appear refractory
- Suggests amenability to conventional gravity and CIL processing
Terrain Minerals (ASX: TMX) has signed up specialist firm Independent Metallurgical Operations (IMO) to conduct preliminary metallurgical test work on gold mineralisation from the Lightning project in WA.
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Lighting is part of the company’s 100% owned Smokebush gold and silver project, located 350km north of Perth.
IMO has now received all requested sample material at its Welshpool processing facility in Perth and results are expected to be received within approximately 13 weeks of sample receipt
Terrain executive director, Justin Virgin, said geological assessment by the company indicates the mineralisation does not appear refractory in nature – a key consideration for processing economics.
Mr Virgin said if the metallurgical test work has been designed to test this interpretation and if confirmed, a non- refractory gold response would support a conventional gravity and carbon-in-leach (CIL) processing flowsheet – a well-understood, lower-capital pathway that underpins many operating gold mines in the Murchison region.
IMO will conduct the test work using samples prepared from RC chip intervals collected during the recent 2026 drilling campaign.
The test work program comprises three phases: sample preparation and comprehensive head assay characterisation; gravity gold concentration using centrifugal concentrators; and staged cyanide leach optimisation covering grind size, reagent conditions, and carbon-in-leach testing.
Lightning sits within a well-endowed gold district, with Vault Mining’s Rothsay Gold mine located approximately 10 km to the south and Capricorn Metals’ Golden Range project to the north.
Metallurgical testing follows granting of a mining lease and comes ahead of a Maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) targeted for July 2026.
“Establishing the metallurgical characteristics of the mineralisation at this stage provides Terrain with essential processing data to support future resource estimation and development planning, should ongoing exploration results continue to warrant project advancement,” Mr Virgin told shareholders.
TMX is steady at 0.4¢. Mkt cap $14.84M.
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