Taruga Minerals hones-in on rare earth mineralisation at Mt Craig with RAB drilling

Strike extensions of rare earth elements are being targeted at the Morgans Creek area of the Mt Craig Project, leveraging funding from the South Australian Government to drill-test the Hydrothermal Hill and Shute prospects, which may hold c

Proactive Published 05/09/2022

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Taruga Minerals Ltd (ASX:TAR) has kicked off rotary air blast (RAB) drilling at the Morgans Creek prospect of the wholly-owned Mt Craig Project in South Australia, designed to test for clay-hosted rare earth element (REE) mineralisation.

The company is following-up on strike extensions of REEs recently discovered at Morgans Creek, which returned intersections including:

6 metres at 1,210 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxide (TREO) from 9 metres
22 metres at 1,050 ppm TREO from 27 metres, including 10 metres at 1,940 ppm TREO
3 metres m at 1,715 ppm TREO from 39 metres, including 2 metres at 2,456 ppm TREO

The drilling at Mt Craig is co-funded by the South Australian Government under the Accelerated Discovery Initiative (ADI), which awarded Taruga $650,000 in funding for REEs and sediment-hosted copper exploration.

Multiple prospects to be tested

TAR’s drilling will focus on testing extensions of clay and saprock hosted REEs at Hydrothermal Hill over a 5-kilometre-long prospective strike.

The company has noted that REE mineralisation is pervasive across multiple lithologies at Morgans Creek, with the best grades intercepted to date coming from the upper weathered and oxidised portions of the highly reactive Yednalue Quartzite.

Morgans Creek RAB drill plan, showing the mapped Yednalue Quartzite unit, previous Taruga drilling, over high-resolution ground magnetics TMI image.

Taruga will also undertake drilling at the newly defined Shute prospect in the Western Plains area of the project.

Shute is one of several prospects along strike in the Western Plains area, defined by a circular magnetic feature around 500 metres in diameter at the junction of three interpreted major structures.

The company believes Shute is prospective for more clay-hosted REEs, with potential for copper in the basement rocks as well.

Shute Prospect RAB drill plan, showing the interpreted structures and a historical drill hole, over TMI image. Note several historical copper workings align with the interpreted structures, where rocks outcrop to the east of Schute.