Taruga Minerals picks-up large Martins Well project in South Australia

Taruga Minerals (ASX: TAR) has picked-up the Martins Well rare earth element (REE) project following a competitive release bidding process.

The new project covers 614 square kilometres of ground in the Adelaide Fold Belt in South Australia.

According to Taruga, the project remains underexplored despite being highly prospective for clay-hosted REE, as well as Mississippi Valley type (MVT) zinc-lead-copper-silver and Central African-style sediment hosted copper.

The project is believed to have similar-style mineralisation to Taruga’s Morgans Creek prospect, within its Mt Craig project, which is also on the Adelaide Fold Belt.

Taruga chief executive officer Thomas Line said the company was “very pleased” with its successful bid for Martins Well.

“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.”

Previous exploration

Taruga has already firmed up several prospects at Martins Well including two large structures: Willipa Dome and Martins Well Dome.

These structures are considered prospective for REE, MVT-type zinc-lead-silver and Central African-style sediment hosted copper.

Mr Line noted REE-focused exploration had never been undertaken at Martins Well. However, the company had noted numerous similarities to its Morgans Creek prospect.

Exploration to-date at Martins Well has comprised eight drill holes, which were focused on specific models.

Taruga said that some of these models are considered outdated.

Previous exploration focused on copper, gold, and uranium.

Major miner BHP (ASX: BHP) briefly explored the ground, with limited work undertaken in a hunt for gold.

In 1989, South Australia’s Department of Mines completed rotary mud and aircore drilling within and around the project to search for zinc.

However, historical assays from sampling have returned 35.6%, 53.8% and 47.2% manganese.

Other historical samples taken from the Artipena prospect on the Martins Well Dome returned 2,300 parts per million copper, 2,000ppm zinc, 4,000ppm cobalt and 4,000ppm lithium.

Taruga pointed out this was the same geochemical signature present at the Hydrothermal Hill REE target within Mt Craig.

Advancing Martins Well

In advancing Martins Well, Taruga will continue reviewing all available historical data on the asset, lock-in land access agreements and begin mapping and surface geochemistry sampling.

Taruga also plans to complete ground and airborne geophysics surveys to assist with refining drill targets.