Junior multi-commodity explorer Terrain Minerals (ASX:TMX) has launched a 145-hole aircore drilling program across its Smokebush Gold Project in Western Australia.
The company plans to test for bedrock-hosted primary mineralisation over 3 ‘potential polymetallic’ anomalies, simply dubbed Target 1, 3, and 4.
Each of these targets lies along the Larins Lane prospect within the Smokebush area. Terrain says this prospect is potentially part of the same greenstone belt that hosts 29Metals’ (ASX:29M) Golden Grove copper, gold, silver, zinc, and lead mine.
At Target 1, Terrain plans to drill 42 holes for roughly 2,500m, with each hole expected to drill to between 20m and 30m below surface.
Target 3 will be subjected to 67 aircore holes, with this zone spanning roughly 1,100m by 350m and home to nickel, copper, silver, and gold soil geochemical anomalies.
Meanwhile, the company will test Target 4 with 32 holes. This target stretches 900m by 400m and remains open to the southeast, according to Terrain.
While Terrain will focus the majority of its drilling work on these 3 targets, the company says it also plans to test several others with a small number of holes.
Raglan Drilling has been contracted to complete the program.
The company picked out these targets following a mobile metal ion (MMI) soils program across the Smokebush area.
According to Terrain, this geochemistry exploration technique is ‘especially well-suited’ for deeply buried mineral deposits under transported sands and has been known to find mineral deposits.
MMI measures metal ions that travel upwards from mineralised material towards surface. The company says with the help of careful soil sampling, sophisticated chemical ligands, and ‘ultra-sensitive’ instrumentation, MMI data can indicate anomalous areas.
At Smokebush, MMI readings that were higher in copper and gold were first identified and contoured by Terrain, and significant areas of overlap between elevated values in these contoured elements determined the most promising areas in terms of prospectivity.
Alongside Smokebush, Terrain owns the Lort River Rare Earth Elements (REE) Project near Esperance and the Wild-Viper Gold Project north of Leonora.
Write to Joshua Smith at Mining.com.au
Images: Terrain Minerals
