Terrain Minerals has expanded one of its biggest induced polarisation IP geophysical programs at its Smokebush gold and silver project, 350km north of Perth in WA’s Mid West, by adding four new survey lines across three historic prospects.
The Paradise City, Hurley and T17 prospects sit 2.5 kilometres southeast of Terrain’s high-grade Lightning and Monza deposits within the company’s northern granted mining lease.
The extension adds four kilometres of dipole-dipole IP coverage across the three targets, where historic drilling and rock chip sampling have already returned significant gold hits. The move comes as Terrain lines up the next batch of drill targets ahead of its looming maiden resource for Lightning.
The company is using the same geophysical technique that identified the 600 metre-long chargeability anomaly in 2023, which later evolved into the company’s flagship Lightning gold discovery.
IP is a non-intrusive geophysical technique that maps the response of disseminated sulphide minerals from the surface. It works well where target structures are hidden beneath transported cover and has already proved effective at Smokebush, where sulphides are closely linked to gold mineralisation.
Terrain Minerals executive director Justin Virgin said: “These are not blank-canvas targets - Paradise City, Hurley and T17 all have historic gold results that genuinely warranted a closer look. The dipole-dipole configuration is the same technique that defined the Lightning anomaly in 2023, which we have since drilled with more than 16,000 metres. We are applying exactly what we know works at Smokebush to the next generation of targets, and we expect the results to give us a clear picture of what to drill in the second half of 2026.”
The historic prospects covered by the survey extension have already yielded encouraging geochemical results. At Paradise City, historic reverse circulation drilling returned intercepts including 3 metres at 2.17 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 10m, 5m at 1.35g/t gold from 13m and 2m at 3.61 g/t gold from 15m depth.
Historic rock chip sampling across Paradise City also delivered seven samples above 10g/t gold, with a best result of 49.27g/t gold, while 31 rock chip or grab samples averaged 8.15g/t gold.
Terrain’s follow-up sampling over old workings at Paradise City averaged 5.18g/t gold from four rock chip samples, while historic drilling at Hurley and T17 returned 10m at 1.4 g/t gold from 15m and 2m at 2.5 g/t gold from 51 metres depth.
The extra lines build on Terrain’s plan, outlined two weeks ago, to use IP geophysics to test for repeat Lightning-style structures along the same north-south shear corridor and around the Mt Mulgine intrusive setting that hosts Lightning and Monza.
That earlier program already included Hurley, but the latest extension broadens the sweep to bring Paradise City and T17 into the same modern survey.
The extended survey also follows the company’s 21 May update, which showed Lightning’s maiden mineral resource estimate remains on track for July, while final technical work, such as collar surveys, drone topography and metallurgical sampling continues.
By running the proven dipole-dipole IP configuration over old gold occurrences rather than relying on lower-resolution historical work, Terrain aims to improve subsurface geological definition before deciding which targets deserve priority drilling in the second half of 2026.
With Wildflower drilling assays still pending, and the Lightning resource estimate and fresh IP targets due in July, Terrain’s Smokebush project looks set to deliver a steady stream of news while building a broader pipeline of follow-up opportunities.
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By Doug Bright
