Terrain nails high-grade gold and silver in Mid West

Terrain Minerals has confirmed gold hits up to 6.05 grams per tonne (g/t) and silver to 20.34g/t in first-pass reverse circulation drilling of three key targets at its Wildflower prospect in the company’s Smokebush project, 350km north of Perth in WA.

The results have backed up the company’s induced polarisation (IP) targeting strategy and suggest Wildflower could become its next growth front behind Lightning, where a maiden resource estimate is expected next month. They also add weight to Terrain’s view that part of the Smokebush project may host a broader mineralised system.

The 13-hole drilling program for 2276m returned top hits of 1m at 6.05g/t gold from 171m at Wildflower, 1m at 4.38g/t gold and 20.34g/t silver from 140m at Cota and 1m at 1.8g/t gold from 94m at its T16 target. Cota also delivered a second 1-metre intercept going 3.99g/t gold and 5.17g/t silver from 148m depth.

Gold values above the 0.5g/t lower cut-off grade were intersected in eight of the 13 holes, with the best results coming from depths below 130m.

While the intercepts are narrow, Terrain says the mineralisation style mirrors its nearby Lightning discovery and confirms the effectiveness of the IP method that originally identified the Wildflower targets.

The company says coincident silver in some Wildflower hits reflects the same gold-silver association already recorded at Lightning.

Terrain Minerals executive director Justin Virgin said: “Confirming gold across all three targets at Wildflower suggests to us that the system is real and seeing it in the same structural setting as Lightning gives us confidence the geological model is working across Smokebush. The best grades coming from depth – above 4 g/t gold below 130 metres (down hole) – is not unlike what we are seeing at Lightning to date.”

The latest results follow Terrain’s late-May decision to expand one of its biggest IP survey campaigns across its Paradise City, Hurley and T17 prospects, southeast of Lightning, using the same dipole-dipole method that outlined the 600m Lightning anomaly in 2023. 

Just days earlier, the company said that final technical and approvals work at Lightning was on track for a maiden resource estimate in July, giving Wildflower’s results extra weight as the next potential growth front within the broader Smokebush system.

Wildflower sits 3km south of Lightning, on the same Mt Mulgine intrusive system.  Both prospects occupy positions on the flanks of the Mt Mulgine granitic, which may have been a controlling influence on mineralisation.    Paradise City, Hurley and T17 also lie in a similar structural position on the flanks of the same granite.   

Terrain says the chargeability anomaly at Cota remains open to the northeast and southwest. The full extent of the system is untested along strike and at depth, with part of the anomaly extending into adjacent granted tenure also held by the company.

The company’s next steps include a full review of the Wildflower dataset and further geophysical interpretation before settling on the timing and design of any follow-up program.

With Lightning edging towards its first resource and Wildflower beginning to validate the potential for a broader exploration model, Terrain appears to be steadily building a second line of growth at Smokebush.

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