Resource upgrade drilling at Terra Metals’ (ASX:TM1) Dante Project has delivered multiple thick, continuous Bushveld-style reef intercepts from surface across previously undrilled areas of Reef 2 (Hyperion).
CEO Thomas Line says Dante continues to exceed even the company’s highest expectations and the latest results show potential to significantly grow and increase confidence in the existing 148 million tonne mineral resource estimate (MRE).
The new assays confirm consistent mineralisation within previously unknown large gaps in the drill spacing. Known mineralisation at Reef 2 currently extends for more than 6.2km of continuous strike and demonstrates consistent TiO₂–V₂O₅–Cu–PGE-Au grades in ‘high-grade’ Basal Reef layer, and medium grade Upper Reef layer, within broad well-developed thick, and consistently mineralised hanging wall packages from surface.
The company says the results continue to reinforce that the Dante system hosts a large-scale, Bushveld-style sequence of stratiform, mineralised, reef layers with continuity along strike and at depth.
Importantly, the intersections reported form part of a 21,679m drilling program, with assays still pending for over 100 drillholes, including additional zones of visually logged sulfides at Southwest, resource upgrade drilling at Reef 1 and Reef 2, and newly mapped reef extensions across the intrusive complex.
Not a typical exploration story
With the 2025 drilling program now complete (totalling 21,678m) and assays pending for approximately 110 drillholes, the company is rapidly advancing its understanding of a districtscale, multi-commodity magmatic system.
Large-scale metallurgical testwork, combined with ongoing DHEM surveys, gravity data acquisition and heritage programs, will further inform exploration planning and support assessment of potential extensions to the known mineralised reef horizons
Phase three drilling at the Dante MRE area has now been completed, comprising 120 drillholes for a total of 10,347m, targeting both resource upgrade and resource expansion across Reef 1 (Crius) and Reef 2 (Hyperion).
The program included 109 reverse circulation drillholes and 11 diamond drillholes, designed to improve geological confidence within the existing MRE area and to test for extensions along strike and down dip. In addition to the resource drilling, the PQ-sized diamond program was completed to collect more than 40 tonnes of metallurgical core, providing material for optimisation testwork, ore beneficiation trials and geotechnical studies.
These datasets will contribute to refining the geological, metallurgical and geotechnical understanding of the Dante Reefs and are expected to support planned MRE update work in early 2026.
A further 62 drillholes for 11,331m were completed at the Southwest Prospect, where recent drilling has intercepted extensive intervals of Ti–V–Fe–Cu–Ni–Co–bearing magnetite–sulfide reefs (locally up to 59 m thick), as well as zones of disseminated, net-textured and locally massive magmatic sulfides.
Line says the thickness, continuity, and metal tenor of these reefs over kilometres of strike demonstrate that Dante is not a typical exploration story – “it is an emerging multi-commodity district in its own right”.
“The system is large, laterally extensive and consistently mineralised from surface, with outstanding potential still to be drilled,” the CEO adds
“What is most compelling is the reliability of the geology – every round of drilling continues to add tonnage potential, grade and metal content, and we have only tested a fraction of the broader system.
“Dante is rapidly becoming a globally significant discovery for Terra Metals and for the West Musgrave region, and our confidence in the long-term value of this project has never been stronger.”
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Terra Metals
