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Taruga Minerals kicks-off drilling at Mt Craig in search of more REE

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By Lorna Nicholas - 
Taruga Minerals ASX TAR Rotary Air Blast RAB Mt Craig Project TREO rare earths REE South Australia

Taruga Minerals has $650,000 in South Australian Government grants to assist in drilling for REE and sediment-hosted copper at Mt Craig.

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Taruga Minerals (ASX: TAR) has kicked-off drilling at its Mt Craig project in South Australia in search of extensions to clay-hosted rare earth elements (REE) recently discovered at the Morgans Creek prospect.

The rotary airblast drilling program is co-funded under the South Australian Government’s Accelerated Discovery Initiative (ADI).

Taruga has $650,000 under the initiative to explore for REE and sediment-hosted copper at the project.

Drilling at Morgans Creek in 2021 returned REE with highlight intercepts of 6m at 1,210 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO) from 9m; 22m at 1,050ppm TREO from 27m, including 10m at 1,940ppm TREO; and 3m at 1,715ppm TREO from 39m, including 2,456ppm TREO.

In the current program, Taruga will focus on extension of the clay-hosted REE identified at the Hydrothermal Hill target, where 5km of prospective strike has been delineated.

Taruga also plans to drill the Shute prospect which lies within the Western Plains area at Mt Craig.

This prospect has been defined by a circular magnetic feature that is about 500m in diameter at the junction of three interpreted major structures.

Although Taruga expects to uncover REE at Shute, it also believes the target is prospective for copper.

Martins Well

The current drilling program at Mt Craig comes after Taruga revealed last week it had secured the Martins Well project, which is also in South Australia.

Martins Well encompasses 614sq km within the Adelaide Fold Belt, which is also home to the Mt Craig project.

Similar to Mt Craig, Taruga believes Martins Well is highly prospective for clay-hosted REE, as well as Central African-style sediment hosted copper and Mississippi Valley type (MVT) zinc-lead-copper-silver.

“We have learned much about REE mineralisation in the Adelaide Fold Belt at Morgans Creek and this knowledge has highlighted Martins Well as having prospective geology for further clay-hosted REE mineralisation in a similar style to Morgans Creek,” Taruga chief executive officer Thomas Line said.

The company plans to undertake geophysical and geochemical surveys across Martins Well to assist with refining drill targets.