- Twenty intersections above 1,000ppm tungsten identified in 16 holes across five prospects
- 80 intersections above a 200ppm lower cut-off identified in 32 holes
- Tungsten is a district-scale feature, present in drilling at six Smokebush prospects
- Tungsten assayed on only a third of the Smokebush sample database
Terrain Minerals (ASX: TMX) has identified significant new tungsten upside at the Smokebush project in Western Australia.
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The company’s over-range re-assaying of previously capped drill samples, combined with a review of the Terrain’s drill hole database, has confirmed high-grade tungsten intersections across multiple areas of the project.
Executive director, Justin Virgin, said the results highlight the potential for a district-scale tungsten system occurring alongside the project’s established gold and silver mineralisation in a region actively being developed for both commodities.
“The Mt Mulgine region has long been recognised for its gold and tungsten potential, with projects targeting both commodities progressing towards development just a stone’s throw from our Lightning project,” Mr Virgin said.
“Importantly, before drilling a single hole at Smokebush specifically for tungsten, we had already returned grades above 0.4% WO3 in five separate holes.
“Tungsten is a critical mineral, and its price has moved sharply higher over the past year amid increasing geopolitical pressure to secure supply outside China. Given these results, we are adding up to 12 holes to our upcoming drilling program, designed primarily to test for further tungsten mineralisation.”
The Smokebush drilling to date has primarily focused on gold and silver, with only a limited number of holes and selected one-metre intervals comprehensively tested for multi-element mineralisation.
Only around 28% of the samples have been tested for silver. Our review of tungsten within an incomplete dataset, representing approximately 33% of the samples, has delivered encouraging results.
“A larger re-assay program is being planned to test for silver grades ahead of the next gold/silver MRE update, expected in Q2 2027. It will be straightforward to include tungsten in the suite of commodities tested at the same time,” Mr Virgin told shareholders.
Historically the project has been drilled for gold in a series of programs. Tungsten was reported incidentally on part of that drilling as one element in a broader multi-element suite. A review of the company’s drill hole database completed in September 2026 identified tungsten across the project.
That review also identified 13 samples that had returned tungsten at exactly 2,000ppm W, the upper reporting limit of the standard four-acid multi-element package.
The true grade of the best tungsten in the project was therefore not known. All 13 samples have now been re-assayed by sodium peroxide fusion with an ICP-MS finish, which is not subject to that ceiling.
Eleven returned above 2,000ppm W and two returned just below it.
TMX was steady at 0.3¢ with a Mkt cap of $11.13M.
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