Terrain earns into WA gold at Smokebush

Terrain Minerals has earned its 80 per cent holding in the joint venture tenements at its Smokebush gold project in WA, with ownership of the tenure having now been transferred to the company. The company has ploughed over $250,000 into its exploration of the five joint venture tenements and has also issued the vendors 5 million shares in the company, meeting the conditions of the earn-in arrangement.

The vendors residual 20 per cent interest in the tenure is free-carried until the completion of a feasibility study at which point, they may elect to convert their interest to a 1 per cent net smelter royalty.

Terrain retains the first right of refusal should the Smokebush vendors decide to sell their 20 per cent interest in the project, however, it may be required to make further payments, of up to $500,000 cash or shares, upon the completion of agreed milestones.

The company’s Smokebush gold project lies within Western Australia’s Murchison mineral field and is located approximately 65 kilometres west of the historical Paynes Find mining centre and 350km north-east of Perth.

The project is composed of five prospecting licenses and three exploration licenses covering more than 50 square kilometres of gold-bearing greenstone stratigraphy. The company holds three of the leases outright, whilst one of the exploration licenses and four of the prospecting licenses are held under the joint venture.

Terrain’s exploration at Smokebush has advanced rapidly in recent months, with initial work identifying a smattering of old artisanal workings which have now developed into a pipeline of gold prospects for exploration.

The company’s exploration is now focused on the Monza, Paradise City and Wildflower prospects, where Terrain is currently working up targets for drilling in the coming field season.

The Monza prospect lies in the north of the Smokebush tenure where the company has identified an 800-metre-long structural corridor associated with a shear zone that cross-cuts the underlying stratigraphy. Drilling and sampling indicate the presence of shear and quartz vein gold mineralisation, with first-pass drilling having returned a bag of solid intercepts, providing walk-up targets for future drilling.

Paradise City is located to the south of the Monza prospect with recent geophysical surveys having delineated what appears to be an enticing fault zone that extends along contact between a north-south trending high-magnetic unit and the host rocks of the basement stratigraphy. This gold-bearing structure extends along more than 3km of strike, with limited surface sampling having already identified a 600m long gold anomaly that remains open along strike.

Surface sampling of the historic Paradise City mine workings has returned some impressive numbers, including assays of 38.9 gram per tonne gold and 49.27 g/t gold, whilst shallow drilling has also returned anomalous intercepts, including 3m at 2.17 g/t gold from 10m and 2m at 3.61 g/t gold from only 15m down-hole.

Terrain is now planning systematic drilling across the Paradise City target as part of its 2021 exploration program.

The company’s Wildflower prospect is its latest addition to what has become a rich pipeline of targets. The prospect lies in the southern project area and is partially hidden below a blanket of sand and soil. Despite this, the prospect hosts a broad zone of surface gold anomalism, which stretches along more than 500m of strike and helps to define the underlying gold-bearing structure.

Magnetic surveying at Wildflower indicates that the prospect is a similar style of target to Paradise City, with the company now planning a first pass aircore drilling program across the target as part of its 2021 exploration program.

Terrain now holds a majority position across the Smokebush tenure, placing it in a strong position as it kicks off exploration over the prospective gold ground in the coming months. With high-grade rock chips being lifted from the old workings across the tenure and shallow drilling also delivering the goods, it seems that all that is left to be done is to prove the old analogue – “where there is smoke, there’s fire”.

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