Terrain Minerals has just upped the stakes significantly at its Monza gold project east of Geraldton after nailing an 11m drill hit grading 6.03g/t gold and 43.5g/t silver just 50m from known mineralisation. The high-grade hit has unearthed a new lode in the western side of the project aptly known as the Lightning target that has thrown up some standout 1m intercepts of 10.28g/t with 123 g/t silver, 11.41g/t with 86.9 g/t silver and 10.37g/t gold along with 14 g/t silver, suggesting a strong near-surface mineralised system.
The new RC drill hit is reasonably shallow, kicking off from just 75m downhole and a second hole into Lightning further south unearthed a 3-metre section running at 6.12g/t gold from just 26m, including a peak result of 15.68g/t gold and 10.7g/t silver.
At the existing Monza deposit just to the east of the new Lightning target, Terrain also reported a down-dip hit of 5m grading 3.77g/t gold at 180 metres deep, with a one-metre intercept coming in at 13.13g/t gold and 18g/t silver.
The encouraging results follow a shift in Terrain’s exploration strategy, after the completion of a newly developed induced polarisation (IP) geophysical model.
Management says the revised blueprint was able to pinpoint the Lightning prospect as a promising parallel structure to Monza and has now triggered an aggressive follow-up program on similar-looking targets.
The Lightning target was first spotted in 2023 during an IP survey.
A follow-up drill hole later that year returned an initial hit of 2 metres at 6.22g/t gold, prompting further modelling which turned up an anomaly potentially up to 600 metres in strike length.
The company says the two RC holes drilled at Lightning last month have now confirmed the presence of high-grade mineralisation and demonstrated strong correlation between gold and pathfinder elements such as lead, zinc, silver, arsenic, and antimony.
Terrain Minerals executive director Justin Virgin said: “We are very excited with the success of the new IP modelling at both Lightning & Monza. The high-grade results are highly encouraging and turn the project upside down.”
To build on the momentum, Terrain has now engaged a drill contractor to kick off a new 3,500-metre RC drilling campaign in the next four weeks, which will target extensions along strike and down dip at both Monza and Lightning.
In parallel, the company is bringing on a metallurgical consultant in the next few weeks to run tests on Lightning’s mineralisation to see if it is suitable for a simple gravity concentration and cyanide-in-leach processing.
Terrain has additionally lodged a mining lease application to consolidate its existing prospecting licences at Monza and Lightning into a single tenement and lay the groundwork for potential future development,
With high-grade intercepts near surface, a newly emerging geological model and a well-equipped geophysical toolkit, Terrain just might be onto something now with the combined Lightning and Monza deposits. The existing Monza deposit to the east was progressing well however the discovery of Lightning just 50m to the east with much bigger numbers gives the entire project a completely different flavour now.
Geology is not an exact science at the best of times and its always nice to see a new Geological theory pay off as it has for Terrain with its IP work at Lightning.
No doubt that theory will be given a solid workout over the next weeks and months as Terrain looks to develop up something that can be mined.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By James Pearson
