Terrain Minerals Confirms High-Grade Tungsten at Smokebush, Adding a Second Story

High-grade tungsten confirmed across Smokebush after over-range re-assays

Re-assaying of 13 previously capped samples, combined with a database review, has confirmed high-grade tungsten intersections at the 100% owned Smokebush Project, 350km north of Perth, Western Australia. Terrain Minerals reported the exploration results on 06 October 2026, and they sit alongside the project’s established gold and silver mineralisation (maiden MRE, 27/07/2026).

Tungsten is reported as tungsten trioxide (“WO₃”). The grades come from incidental drilling that was designed for gold, not tungsten.

Key figures from the announcement:

• 20 intersections above 1,000ppm W in 16 holes across five prospects
• 80 intersections above 200ppm W in 32 holes
• Best result: 1m @ 0.75% WO₃ (5,962ppm W) from 144m in SBRC074 at Lightning
• Up to 12 RC holes are being designed to test for tungsten

For investors, tungsten emerging next to the maiden gold and silver Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) may add a second commodity story. These are Exploration Results only.

Best tungsten intersections at Lightning, Hurley, T16 and Cota

How the capped samples were resolved

Thirteen samples had returned exactly 2,000ppm W, the upper reporting limit of the standard four-acid multi-element package. That meant the true grade of the best tungsten in the project was unknown.

All 13 were re-assayed by sodium peroxide fusion with an ICP-MS finish, which is not subject to that ceiling. Eleven returned above 2,000ppm W and two returned just below it.

The SBRC074 result is a single one-metre sample, bounded by low-grade tungsten in the adjacent metres.

Top results table

The table below shows selected intersections from Table 2 of the announcement, at a 1,000ppm W lower cut-off.

The intersections are narrow, between one and four metres downhole, and true widths are not known. At SBRC087 the re-assays confirm a tungsten-bearing zone between 334 and 357 metres downhole, showing the tungsten extends to depth at Lightning.

Justin Virgin, Executive Director

“…before drilling a single hole at Smokebush specifically for tungsten, we had already returned grades above 0.4% WO₃ in five separate holes.”

A district-scale tungsten footprint with most of the dataset untested

Six prospects over roughly 6km by 5km

Tungsten is present in drilling at six Smokebush prospects over an area of approximately 6km by 5km, and its limits have not yet been defined. Lightning has 59 holes carrying tungsten assays.

Only 9,078 of 27,780 drill samples (33%) have been tested for tungsten, so the extent is described as materially under-measured. That is the upside angle, but the dataset is also a partial, non-random subset of the drilling, so it cannot be treated as representative.

Tungsten 101: why the two styles matter

Tungsten is listed as a critical mineral by Australia, the United States and the European Union. It is valued for hardness, weight and a very high melting point, and its largest single use is tungsten carbide, used in drill bits, cutting tools and wear parts. Demand also comes from aerospace, defence, computer chip and energy uses, and China supplies more than 80% of the world’s mined tungsten.

The tungsten occurs in two chemically different forms, which matters when deciding where to drill:

• Lightning and Hurley: very little bismuth, with a median of 0.2ppm in samples above 200ppm tungsten. This points to scheelite, a tungsten mineral made of calcium and tungsten, typically formed some distance from a granite.
• Cota and T16: higher bismuth (up to 150ppm) and molybdenum (up to 62ppm). These metals usually drop out of hot fluids close to a granite, suggesting these prospects sit closer to the granite that supplied the tungsten.

The tungsten is interpreted as coming from a separate event to the gold, deposited by different fluids.

Price context from the announcement:

• Ammonium paratungstate (APT), the main traded form of tungsten, delivered to Rotterdam, rose from about US$475 per metric tonne unit in mid-2025 to about US$3,075 per metric tonne unit at the end of July 2026 (Fastmarkets).
• Since July 2026 the price inside China has fallen sharply while Western prices have held, so the market is splitting and future prices are uncertain.
• These prices come from published market assessments and are not a forecast by the Company.

Up to 12 RC holes and a 2027 tungsten roadmap

Drilling plan

The Company plans to add up to 12 reverse circulation (RC) holes to its upcoming Smokebush program, to test tungsten directly for the first time, subject to obtaining the required drilling approvals. Approximately three holes would go into each of the Cota, T16, Lightning and Hurley targets.

They would use the same rig and crew as the 86-hole, 10,905m gold-focused campaign due to start this month, at minimal incremental cost. Final collar positions are expected to be reported via ASX prior to drilling.

A standing over-range assay trigger of 1,000ppm W will be set with the laboratory so the reporting ceiling does not recur. The Company will also audit its pulp store to establish how much of the two thirds of the database without tungsten assays can be re-assayed without drilling.

Indicative timeline

The announcement sets out this indicative forward program:

1. Q2 FY27: Standing 1,000ppm W over-range trigger set; pulp store audit completed and a bulk pulp re-assay program scoped.
2. Q3 FY27: Drilling completed of up to 12 RC holes at Cota, T16, Lightning and Hurley.
3. Q4 FY27: Assay results received, interpreted and reported to ASX.
4. Q1 FY28: Subject to results, commencement of follow-up RC drilling and district-scale mapping of the tungsten distribution.

The next gold/silver MRE update is expected in Q4 FY27. A larger re-assay program is being planned to test for silver, of which only about 28% of samples have been tested, and Virgin said it would be “straightforward to include tungsten in the suite of commodities tested at the same time.”

Virgin noted the Mt Mulgine region has long been recognised for gold and tungsten potential, with projects “progressing towards development just a stone’s throw from our Lightning Project.”

For investors, the key point is the stage. These are Exploration Results only, no Mineral Resource is implied, and no assessment of economic potential has been made.

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