Terrain Minerals Ltd (ASX:TMX, OTC:TMXAF) has secured a key milestone at its Smokebush Project in Western Australia, converting several prospecting licences to Mining Lease status and locking in long-term tenure over the Lightning gold-silver prospect as drilling ramps up.
The newly granted Mining Lease M59/0796 covers the core of Lightning, where Terrain is targeting a maiden JORC resource by mid-2026. The approval runs through to 2046, providing 21 years of operating certainty across one of the company’s most advanced prospects.
New M59/0796 tenement conversion area yellow.
Mining lease underpins Lightning development
The licence conversion comes as Terrain continues a 34-hole, ~6,800-metre RC drilling program across Lightning and the nearby Wildflower target. First assays from the campaign are expected in early February.
Read more: Terrain kicks off 6,800-metre RC drill campaign at Lightning and Wildflower prospects
Lightning has delivered a string of broad gold and silver intersections over recent months, supporting Terrain’s view of a developing mineralised system with scale potential. The new mining lease gives the company the security needed to progress toward its first formal resource estimate next year.
Drilling continues at Lightning and Wildflower
Work at Lightning is being paired with ongoing RC drilling at Wildflower, a large 1,000-by-500-metre gold-in-soil anomaly where recent induced-polarisation surveying defined multiple new targets. The company is testing these as part of the current program.
The Lightning Gold Prospect is located 15 kilometres from the operating Rothsay Gold Mine and within proximity to Capricorn Metals’ 4.5-million-ounce Mt Gibson Gold Deposit.
Smokebush, located 350 kilometres north of Perth in the Yalgoo Mineral Field, is surrounded by established operations including Warriedar Resources’ Golden Range Project, 29Metals’ Golden Grove mine and Vault Mining’s Rothsay Gold Mine.
Broader portfolio work progressing
Terrain continues to advance several parallel projects within Smokebush, including the Larin’s Lane gallium prospect. Earlier work outlined broad gallium intersections across a 9-by-3-kilometre zone, with metallurgical studies under way with support from the WA Government and MRIWA.
Outside Western Australia, the company’s diversified portfolio includes the 2,500-square-kilometre Biloela gold-copper project in Queensland, the Lort River rare earths project near Esperance and the Carlindie lithium and gold project south-west of Port Hedland.
Terrain said it is also evaluating additional opportunities across gold, copper, industrial minerals and critical metals, with WA and Queensland remaining the immediate focus while broader assessments continue in Africa, Europe and the Americas.