Terrain Minerals Posts Maiden 54,000 oz Gold Resource at Lightning

Terrain Minerals (ASX: TMX) delivered a maiden mineral resource estimate of 54,000 ounces at its Lightning gold project, part of the broader Smokebush project north of Perth in Western Australia. The estimate is constrained within an optimised pit shell and includes underground economic assumptions.

Justin Virgin, the company's managing director, called the MRE a "starter" resource that extends from surface and remains open at depth. It is also under-drilled to the north of the main orebody, he said. "The maiden 'starter' mineral resource estimate at Lightning represents another major milestone for Terrain and provides an exciting foundation for the company's future growth," Virgin said. He noted that a significant amount of known mineralisation sits outside the current MRE, pointing to potential for expansion through further drilling.

The company plans infill and extensional drilling to convert and grow the existing resource, while also testing new priority targets. Virgin said Terrain will evaluate silver potential at the Monza structure, as only 28% of historical drill holes were tested for multi-elements including silver. That, he said, presents an opportunity to assess additional silver mineralisation within the existing drilled footprint.

In mid-May, Terrain completed preliminary metallurgical test work on Lightning. RC drilling over the past 18 months returned significant gold intersections across multiple holes, confirming a coherent zone of gold mineralisation associated with arsenopyrite within a broader structural corridor. The company's geological assessment indicates the mineralisation does not appear refractory, a key consideration for processing economics. A non-refractory gold response would support a conventional gravity and carbon-in-leach processing flowsheet, a lower-capital pathway used by many operating gold mines in the Murchison region.

Shares in Terrain Minerals were steady at A$0.003, giving a market capitalisation of A$11.13 million. The company's longer-term objective is to define a substantial gold resource inventory across the broader Smokebush project area, Virgin said. For more on gold markets, see the gold profile.