Terrain Minerals has launched into stage two of a reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign at its Wildflower gold project in WA’s Mid West region, following its recently completed, high-impact sulphide conductor drilling in the Albany-Fraser Belt.
The company has turned its focus to the surging commodities of gold and gallium at its broader Smokebush project, ramping up exploration at the Wildflower gold prospects and its Larins Lane gallium project.
A 1368m RC program will target high-priority gold zones before a final two metallurgical RC holes penetrate Larins Lane for metallurgy.
Two new targets have been added to the stage two drilling campaign, based on December stage one drilling results.
The latest program is designed to build on Terrain’s updated geological understandings from December’s stage one drilling. It hopes the focused program can unlock further gold prospects into discoveries at what the company says are newly understood parallel gold structures, including the Monza, Lightning and Mirja prospects.
Key targets include the Mirja prospect and the W3 structure, which is interpreted as a potential repetition of the shear zones hosting nearby Vault Mineral’s mined Rothsay deposit.
In WA’s Albany-Fraser Belt, Terrain has completed initial drill testing of priority bedrock conductors T1 and T2 at the Lort River project. The high-impact targets are on the edge of a magnetic “eye” feature, bearing strong geological similarities to the Nova-Bollinger nickel-copper orebody.
Samples from the drilling are now enroute for analysis, with Terrain remaining very tight-lipped about the results. It will not provide commentary during the campaign, with updates reserved for when all its analytical results are available.
The Larins Lane gallium project is also advancing through metallurgical studies in collaboration with Curtin University researchers through a Mineral Research Institute of WA research program.
The studies aim to develop environmentally friendly extraction methods, leveraging gallium’s critical role in semiconductors and electronics. Gallium’s global importance after China, which controls 98 per cent of its global production, imposed export restrictions on the shiny, metallic element.
Initial drilling at Larins Lane identified broad zones of gallium mineralisation and Terrain plans to conduct additional drilling to expand on the considerable 9km by 3km interpreted strike.
Terrain is a key participant in a recently announced WA-government-funded critical minerals research and has also recently nabbed itself a further $450,000 from investors by way of a share placement to support its ongoing drilling campaigns across WA.
The company has kicked off 2025 with some high-impact discovery-focused drilling across some of the market’s hottest critical and precious metals. With its share price ascending some 66 per cent last week, it seems the market is fully aware of the potential for discoveries from its latest drilling results.
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By Andrew Todd
