Terra Metals Hits 336.9m PGM Reef as Southwest Grows to 1.35km

Diamond hole SWRD090 has returned the widest continuous high-grade reef ever confirmed at Terra Metals’ Southwest discovery: 336.9m grading 1.02 g/t 3E plus copper and nickel credits, with the mineralised corridor now stretching 1.35km and more than 40,000 assay samples still waiting on the laboratory.

Terra Metals (ASX: TM1) lodged the ASX announcement on 1 October 2026, detailing the latest drilling at its Southwest PGM-copper-nickel discovery within the Dante Project, part of the Jameson Layered Intrusion in the West Musgrave region of Western Australia.

The update lands as investors pay closer attention to WA intrusive complexes, which are increasingly framed as alternatives to the politically concentrated platinum-group metal supply out of South Africa and Russia.

This Terra Metals drilling update sets out what the numbers actually show, what the revised Q1 2027 resource timeline means in practice, what the new Double Snag target adds, and which material risks still sit between these intercepts and economic significance. By the time you finish, you will have an unvarnished view of where the company stands today and what to watch next.

Southwest’s biggest hole yet: what SWRD090 actually shows

SWRD090 is the headline, and the number that carries it is wide.

336.9m at 1.02 g/t 3E, 0.11% copper, 0.19% nickel from 191.1m depth. The widest continuous high-grade reef confirmed at Southwest to date.

The 3E figure combines platinum, palladium, and gold into a single grade, the standard way PGM projects report their precious-metal content. At just over a gram per tonne across more than three hundred metres, that is a bulk intercept, not a narrow shoot.

The more interesting part sits inside it. SWRD090 is not a single flat grade stretched over width; it holds higher-grade reef lenses nested within the broader envelope.

Those lenses include a 32.5m section at 1.50 g/t 3E and a 28.8m section at 1.56 g/t 3E, with a narrow, very high-grade sliver of 2.4m at 4.37 g/t 3E deeper in the hole.

CEO and Managing Director Thomas Line is the attributed spokesperson across the coverage of the result.

What the nested lenses point to is a layered geometry: stacked reef horizons within a broader mineralised package. In future study work, that configuration could allow optionality between selectively mining the higher-grade zones and extracting the lower-grade halo in bulk.

Read that as a geometry observation, not an economic verdict. For investors tracking junior PGM explorers, the combination of bulk width at moderate grade and discrete high-grade lenses in one hole is the configuration that tends to hold market attention at the discovery stage. Understanding it stops you from misreading the result as purely a bulk-tonnage story or purely a selective-mining one.

The broader drilling campaign and a corridor now stretching 1.35km

One exceptional hole is a talking point. A pattern of them is a system.

SWRD090 does not stand alone. SWRD071 returned 308.4m at 0.92 g/t 3E, 0.09% copper, 0.16% nickel from 167.5m, including a narrow high-grade hit of 1.2m at 6.54 g/t 3E from 269.8m.

SWRD050 added 181m at 0.85 g/t 3E, 0.06% copper, 0.18% nickel from 421m, and SWRD077 delivered 172.8m at 0.83 g/t 3E from 133.2m.

That repetition of wide reef intersections across multiple holes is the point. The interpreted strike has now grown to roughly 1.35km and remains open in every direction.

The progression tells the story of how fast it has moved:

1. Approximately 950m before August 2026
2. Beyond 1.1km during August 2026
3. 1.35km in the October 2026 update

Operationally, the tempo matches the scale. Five rigs are turning on resource-definition drilling, heritage approvals now cover the full 1.35km footprint, and more than 40,000 assay samples sit in the queue awaiting results.

That backlog matters more than it might appear. The grade and continuity picture you are working with today is materially incomplete, which means the information still being generated is as significant as the information already published. Consistency of reef widths across holes is what nudges a discovery toward resource-definition confidence, but the 40,000-sample pipeline carries its own near-term result risk that is worth factoring in before the numbers land.

What comes next: Double Snag, the Q1 2027 resource estimate, and metallurgical testwork

Three workstreams are running at once, and they converge on a single date.

First, Double Snag. Initial drilling at this newly emerging target intersected sulphide mineralisation roughly 1,200m along strike from the confirmed Southwest Main Zone.

Visual estimates of up to 70% sulphide were logged at Area 1 and Area 2 within Double Snag. Those are observations down the core, not confirmed grades; Terra has cautioned that visual logging cannot substitute for laboratory assays, which remain pending.

From drilling to a maiden resource

Second, the resource estimate. Terra has moved its maiden Southwest mineral resource estimate (a maiden MRE being the first formal, independently signed-off tally of contained metal) from late 2026 to Q1 calendar 2027.

The company attributes the shift to an expanded program and additional mineralised zones found beyond the original scope. That is program growth, not a stumble, though it is still exposed to drilling, metallurgical, and funding execution risk.

Importantly, Southwest sits entirely outside the existing Dante Reefs resource of 148Mt, so the Southwest MRE would represent a genuinely incremental addition to the current base rather than a restatement of it. A Scoping or Pre-Feasibility Study is anticipated in H2 2027 per Eveq’s characterisation.

Third, metallurgy. Cleaner flotation testwork is advancing alongside the drilling, evaluating configurations from a single bulk sulphide concentrate through to separately recovered copper, nickel, and pyrrhotite concentrates.

Here is the sequence to track:

1. Double Snag assays (near term)
2. Southwest maiden MRE (Q1 2027)
3. Scoping/PFS (H2 2027)

For an investor measuring de-risking progress, the next twelve months hold three distinct binary events, each capable of re-rating the story or disappointing. Double Snag assays arrive before the MRE, and metallurgy needs to validate processing economics before any Scoping/PFS carries credibility. Watch all three, not just the resource estimate.

Grading the thesis: what the geology supports and where execution risk sits

The optimism is earned. The calibration is overdue.

The reference trajectory analysts apply here is Chalice Mining’s Gonneville deposit in the Julimar region, where wide-intercept discovery was followed by years of infill, step-out, and metallurgical programs before a maiden resource and subsequent studies arrived. That comparison frames Southwest as a potentially large, coherent magmatic reef system. It does not imply Southwest will reach the same outcome; it describes the path such systems typically walk.

Equity research from MST Access characterises the broader Southwest envelope as running roughly 0.7-1.1 g/t 3E, with nickel around 0.15-0.17% and copper 0.10-0.15%, consistent with a bulk-tonnage reef where scale and continuity matter as much as grade. In that style of deposit, a moderate grade over hundreds of metres can still carry economic weight, provided the tonnes and metallurgy hold up.

Eveq’s July 2026 report supplies the single most important piece of analyst language in this story.

Eveq describes Southwest as a “conceptual exploration target”, stating that grade-fence drilling, deep diamond tails, and a maiden MRE are required to convert exploration optionality into net asset value.

That label precisely locates where Southwest sits on the spectrum from interesting geology to bankable resource. Hold it in mind before forming a view.

The specific risks between here and there are concrete:

• Grade dilution: grades averaged over hundreds of metres may thin against narrower, selective high-grade intervals
• Metallurgical complexity: PGE-rich nickel-copper sulphide flowsheets can be technically demanding and costly
• Continuity at depth: deeper diamond tails may not replicate the grade and continuity seen nearer surface
• Funding and timeline: advancing a bulk-tonnage system to resource level is capital-intensive for a junior

Demand-side risks sit further out. Battery-electric vehicles threaten to erode autocatalyst demand for platinum and palladium, thrifting continues to reduce PGE loadings in industrial uses, and prices swing with automotive cycles and South African supply. The counterweight is supply concentration in South Africa and Russia, which is precisely what draws capital toward WA alternatives in the first place.

What the 1.35km corridor means for Terra Metals and what to watch from here

Six months ago, Southwest was a promising set of intercepts. Today it has the strike footprint and reef continuity that justify a resource-definition program at this scale, and that is the shift that matters.

Taken together, the 1.35km corridor and SWRD090’s 336.9m envelope move Southwest from an interesting discovery into a system that needs a maiden resource estimate to be evaluated properly. Because it sits outside the existing 148Mt Dante Reefs base, a successful Q1 2027 MRE would be genuinely additive rather than a reshuffle of known metal.

The distance between today’s intercepts and an investable resource is still measured in assay batches, metallurgical results, and one certified maiden estimate yet to come. Three variables will decide whether Q1 2027 re-rates the stock or disappoints:

• The pending assay pipeline of more than 40,000 samples
• Double Snag assay results and whether sulphide continuity holds
• Metallurgical testwork outcomes and the recoveries they support

The geological case for Southwest is stronger than it was half a year ago. The near-term catalysts are dense and binary, which gives you a defined set of events to track rather than an open-ended wait.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with financial professionals before making investment decisions. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and these statements are speculative and subject to change based on market developments and company performance.