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- Inferred MRE of 677,000 tonnes at 2.5 g/t
- Resource contained within an optimised pit shell
- Infill and expansion drilling to capture mineralisation currently sitting outside MRE
- Metallurgical stage one results due Q3 2026, with further work scheduled
Terrain Minerals (ASX: TMX) has produced a “starter” maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) of 54,000 ounces at its Lightning gold project, part of the Smokebush project located north of Perth in WA.
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ED, Justin Virgin, said the MRE – which is constrained within an optimised pit shell and economic assumptions for underground – extends from surface and remains open at depth and is under-drilled to the north of the main orebody.
“The maiden ‘starter’ mineral resource estimate at Lightning represents another major milestone for Terrain and provides an exciting foundation for the company’s future growth. Importantly, a significant amount of known mineralisation remains outside the current MRE, highlighting the strong potential to expand the resource through further drilling,” Mr Virgin said.
“Our next drilling campaign will focus on both infill and extensional drilling to convert and grow the existing resource, while also testing several new priority targets that our technical team has developed across the project. With mineralisation remaining open along strike and at depth, we believe Lightning has considerable upside and is well positioned to deliver further resource growth.
“Terrain will also focus on evaluating the silver potential of the Monza structure, as only 28% of historical drill holes were not tested for multi elements which also tests for silver. This presents an opportunity to assess the potential for additional silver mineralisation within the existing drilled footprint.”
Mr Virgin told shareholders that importantly, the “starter” MRE represents an initial foundation rather than the full extent of the project’s mineral endowment at Lightning.
“The numerous look-alike gold targets across the broader project area, will continue to be advanced with the longer-term objective of defining a substantial gold resource inventory.”
In mid-May Terrain announced that preliminary metallurgical test work on Lightning was completed.
RC drilling at Lightning over the past 18 months had returned significant gold intersections across multiple holes, confirming a coherent zone of gold mineralisation associated with arsenopyrite within a broader structural corridor.
Geological assessment by the company indicated the mineralisation does not appear refractory in nature – a key consideration for processing economics.
The metallurgical test work has been designed to test this interpretation. 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.
TMX is steady at 0.3¢ with a Mkt cap of $11.13M.
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