Terrain Minerals Limited (ASX: TMX) has delivered a maiden mineral resource estimate for the Lightning prospect, part of its 100%-owned Smokebush gold and silver project in Western Australia. The independent estimate, prepared by Apex Geoscience, outlines an inferred resource of 677,000 tonnes at 2.5g/t gold, totalling 54,000 ounces of gold and 156,500 ounces of silver. This milestone aligns with the company's previously communicated goal of establishing a maiden resource by mid-2026.

The resource is constrained within an optimised pit shell for potential open-pit extraction, with additional economic assumptions applied to underground mining methods. Importantly, the mineralization is reported to begin from the surface and remains open both along strike and at depth, suggesting that the current figure represents a foundation for further expansion rather than the limit of the system.

"The Maiden 'Starter' Mineral Resource Estimate at Lightning represents another major milestone for Terrain and provides an exciting foundation for the Company's future growth. Importantly, a significant amount of known mineralisation remains outside the current MRE, highlighting the strong potential to expand the resource through further drilling."

— Justin Virgin, Executive Director

The company is now planning to move forward with targeted exploration programs to refine and grow the project's scale. This includes infill and extensional drilling, which is specifically designed to upgrade the existing inferred resource into the higher-confidence indicated category. Terrain Minerals expects to build on this base as it continues to evaluate the broader potential across its Smokebush tenements.

Beyond resource expansion, the company is actively de-risking the technical profile of the Lightning discovery. Metallurgical stage one results are currently scheduled for release during the third quarter of 2026, which will provide further insight into the recoverability of the gold and silver identified in the initial resource estimate. The project’s location, situated 350 kilometres north of Perth, places it within the active Murchison gold region.

The successful delivery of this maiden estimate marks a shift in the project’s development phase, transitioning from primary discovery to a stage focused on growth and technical validation. With the initial resource now established as a reference point, the explorer intends to balance its near-term metallurgical testing with ongoing drilling campaigns to capture mineralisation that currently sits outside the boundaries of this inaugural calculation. The company remains committed to advancing its longer-term objective of defining a substantially larger gold inventory within the greater Smokebush project area.

Read the full announcement: Lightning Maiden 54koz Gold MRE Sets Growth Platform