Terrain Minerals is hunting down a wealth of newly defined gold targets in Western Australia’s Murchison Goldfield, with geophysical surveying at its Smokebush project highlighting key prospects for drill testing. The company has recently completed detailed ground magnetic surveys across the Monza, Paradise City and Wildflower targets with each of the developing prospects having previously returned anomalous gold results.
The company’s move to geophysical surveying follows in the wake of a highly successful exploration program across its extensive tenure at Smokebush last year. First-pass drilling at Monza returned results of up to 4 metres at 4.46 grams per tonne whilst rock chipping at Paradise City has returned assays of over an ounce per tonne and outlined mineralisation over more that 150m of strike.
Terrain’s recent surveying has helped to better define the sub-surface geology hosting the gold mineralisation over the emerging project. An initial interpretation of the magnetic data shows all three prospects host both lithological and structural targets.
Exploration over the Monza target, in the north of the company’s tenure, has delineated an 800m long structural corridor that appears to be associated with a pervasive shear zone cross cutting the underlying stratigraphy. Drilling and sampling show the target to be up to 200m wide, hosting both shear and quartz vein gold mineralisation. Terrain’s first-pass drilling has returned a swag of intercepts and the prospect is now a compelling target for follow up drilling.
The company’s magnetic survey at Paradise City, south of Monza, has highlighted a structure that extends along a north-south trending high-magnetic unit and the host rocks of the basement stratigraphy. The target likely represents a fault or shear zone along the geological contact and can be traced over more than 3 kilometres of strike.
Terrain’s field team have already outlined a coincident surface gold anomaly covering more than 600m of strike along the Paradise City structure with previous shallow drilling having returned anomalous results, including 3m at 2.17 g/t gold from 10m and 2m at 3.61 g/t gold from only 15m down-hole.
With surface sampling around the old Paradise City mine workings also tossing up some impressive numbers, including assays of 38.9 g/t gold and 49.27 g/t gold, the company is now planning systematic drilling across the target as part of its 2021 exploration program.
Possibly the company’s most enigmatic prospect at Smokebush – the Wildflower target – lies in the south of the tenure. Hidden below a blanket of sand and soil, the 500m long prospect hosts broad surface gold anomalism. Magnetic surveying indicates it is coincident and a similar style of target to the Paradise City prospect – a structure along a geological contact. The company is now planning a first pass aircore drilling program across the prospect to gain a greater understanding of the underlying geology and mineralisation.
Terrain’s Smokebush gold project is located approximately 65km west of the historical gold mining centre at Paynes Find and 350km north-east of Perth.
Despite the region having received little attention from mineral explorers over the last two decades, a strong gold price and surging production from established gold mines in the region is attracting a growing horde of junior explorers to the terrane.
Budding gold explorers making waves in the region include the likes of White Cliff Minerals, with its Reedy South discovery and Surefire Resources, with its high-grade Yidby Road prospect, just 30km to the east of Smokebush.
Miners in the South Murchison region include Silver Lake at Deflector and Ramelius at Mt Magnet, with both operations pushing out a wealth of gold and within easy trucking distance of Terrain’s Smokebush Project.
Terrain has already lodged applications with the WA Department of Mines, Industrial Regulation and Safety for its planned drilling campaigns at Paradise City and Wildflower. It is also already preparing to jump back into exploration over the Monza prospect.
With exploration continuing to define targets at Smokebush and a growing band of explorers joining the hunt for gold in the region, Terrain looks set to push its first mover advantage in the region and kick of its new year drilling campaign in the weeks ahead.
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