Taruga Minerals Ltd (ASX:TAR) has confirmed that the rare earth element (REE) mineralisation at the Morgans Creek prospect of the wholly-owned Mt Craig Project in South Australia extends for at least another 5 kilometres of strike.
Rotary air blast (RAB) drilling of 59 holes for 2,156 metres was focused on testing strike extensions of the clay-hosted REE mineralisation intercepted at Hydrothermal Hill in 2021.
Drilling has intercepted weathered portions of the Yednalue Quartzite in multiple sections, confirming the continuity of the prospective unit north of Hydrothermal Hill over more than 1.5 kilometres and 2.5 kilometres to the south, which remains largely untested.
Drill samples have been sent to the lab for assaying.
Morgans Creek RAB drill plan showing the mapped Yednalue Quartzite unit, previous Taruga 2021 drilling, and high-resolution ground magnetics TMI image.
Coming up
Taruga believes that large volumes of Yednalue quartzite may be buried under shallow cover and so identification of further concealed prospects is underway.
It also appears that REE mineralisation is not confined to the Yednalue Quartzite and other units in the stratigraphic sequence are being investigated using soil geochemistry, magnetic and radiometric geophysics.
Shute prospect
RAB and aircore drilling has commenced at the newly-defined Shute prospect, which sits within the Western Plains area of the Mt Craig project and is believed to be prospective for clay-hosted REEs.
The property is one of several prospects along strike in the Western Plains area and is defined by a circular magnetic feature about 500 metres in diameter at the junction of three interpreted major structures.
Drilling will focus on characterising the anomaly, obtain geochemical information and determine the depth to basement. The basement rocks at Shute may also be prospective for copper.