Taruga Minerals (ASX:TAR) reports that a Rotary Air Blast (RAB) drilling campaign has begun at Morgans Creek within the Mt Craig Project (MCP).
The focus at Morgans Creek will be on testing extensions of the clay and saprock hosted REEs identified at Hydrothermal Hill, where a 5km long prospective strike has been identified.
Drilling is focused on testing strike extensions of clay hosted REEs recently discovered at Morgans Creek. All drilling is co-funded by the South Australian government under the Accelerated Discovery Initiative (ADI), under which Taruga was recently awarded $650,000 in funding for REEs and sediment-hosted copper exploration at the Mt Craig Project.
REE anomalism is pervasive across multiple lithologies at Morgans Creek, the best grades intercepted to date were intercepted in the upper weathered and oxidised portions of the highly reactive Yednalue Quartzite.
REE anomalism is pervasive across multiple lithologies at Morgans Creek
The Yednalue Quartzite, which is comprised primarily of sandstones and silts, is mapped/interpreted to extend for over 5km in strike (and up to 300m wide) at Morgans Creek, to the north and south of Hydrothermal Hill.
Where outcrop is present, prospective alteration matching that seen at Hydrothermal Hill has also been identified along strike, particularly at Hydrothermal Hill North, where about 1.5km of prospective strike will be drill tested with several RAB drilling profiles.
Drilling will also be completed at the newly defined Shute prospect, which sits within the Western Plains area of the Mt Craig project.
The Western plains area is a large flat area overlain by shallow transported cover, which expands for over 200km-square on the western side of the Mt Craig Project.
Shute is one of several prospects along strike in the Western Plains area and is defined by a circular magnetic feature about 500m in diameter at the junction of 3 interpreted major structures.
Schute sits offset from the exposed mafic intrusions within the Worrumba diapir to the east.
The underlying geology is interpreted to be reactive sedimentary rocks. RAB drilling profiles will be completed across the Shute prospect to characterise the anomaly. Shute is believed to be prospective for clay hosted REEs.
The basement rocks at Shute may also be prospective for copper.
The Mt Craig Copper Project spans more than 850km-square covering 40km of prospective strike centered around a major structure – the Worrumba Anticline. ‘High-grade’ copper and ionic adsorption clay (IAC) style REEs were discovered at the MCCP during 2021 drilling.
Images: Taruga Minerals Limited
