Terrain Minerals has put another big tick in the box at its Lightning gold project in Western Australia’s Mid West region, concluding a 671m diamond drilling program at its Lightning gold project aimed at securing rock density and other important structural inputs for its upcoming maiden resource estimate in July.
The four-hole campaign at the company’s fully owned Smokebush mining lease involved 340m of reverse circulation (RC) pre-collar drilling and an additional 331m of diamond core tails drilled off the bottom of each hole.
Terrain now has the critical oriented structural and bulk density data required to reduce geological uncertainty, confirm mineralisation continuity across the adjacent Lightning and Monza structures and to enable more accurate tonnage estimation in its resource modelling.
While the main objective of the drilling was to collect data, rather than sniffing out new mineralised zones, the drill bit still delivered. A standout intercept from one hole delivered a 3.4m run of core assaying 4.96 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 213.6m, including 1m at 10.93g/t gold from 214.25m.
Terrain says the result supports the company’s interpreted plunge of higher-grade shoots and adds confidence that better grades could persist at depth.
With its critical data measurements in the bag, Terrain says its Lightning drilling database now sits at 16,000 metres from 97 reverse circulation (RC) holes and four diamond holes, which it believes is a sufficiently dense pattern to support initial resource definition.
The company’s current roadmap for Lightning embraces data integration through April and May, independent resource estimation work in May and June, and a July resource statement which will cover both the Lightning and Monza targets.
Terrain Minerals executive director Justin Virgin said: “Completion of this program marks a key milestone as we move toward our maiden resource at Lightning. With the final dataset now in hand, we are focused on delivering a robust initial resource in July, which we see as the foundation for ongoing growth across the broader Smokebush system.”
The latest milestone follows Terrain’s broader Smokebush push, flagged in early March, when it wrapped up a 7739m RC and diamond program across the Lightning and Wildflower gold-silver targets.
At the time, the company said it expected the Lightning RC assays to be on hand in March, followed by its Wildflower results in late April, with the diamond core assays also expected to report in late April.
Now it’s a matter of stitching the final pieces together. If Terrain’s maiden Lightning resource lands as hoped, the company will have a solid platform to begin considering resource growth drilling along strike and at depth, in parallel with preliminary mining and metallurgy studies.
The company has quickly carved out a strong position with a project offering clear upside and plenty of exploration runway, already delivering solid gold grades while sitting in a richly endowed greenstone belt surrounded by serious gold deposits.
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By Doug Bright
