Taruga Minerals Ltd (ASX:TAR) has surged on uncovering clay-hosted rare earth elements (REE) from surface at Morgans Creek within the 1,500 square kilometres Mt Craig Project in South Australia
During the REE-focused drill program, the company identified mineralisation with a maximum grade of 6,068ppm total rare-earth oxide (TREO), including the highest dysprosium, terbium, neodymium and praseodymium values intersected to date.
Standout assays include:
- 24 metres at 886ppm TREO from surface, including 5 metres at 2,378ppm TREO from 2 metres and 1-metre at 6,068 ppm TREO from 3 metres, along with 3 metres at 1,101ppm TREO from 17 metres;
- 14 metres at 1,016ppm TREO from 3 metres; and
- 16 metres at 913ppm TREO from 2 metres, including 3 metres at 2,092ppm TREO from 2 metres.
Results confirm the geological model and highlight long strike extensions of clay-hosted rare earth element mineralisation, increasing the primary strike to 1.4-kilometres.
The markets welcomed the news with shares trading as high as $0.039, up 34.5% from the previous close.
“Support strong project fundamentals”
Taruga CEO Thomas Line said: “We are very excited by these results.
“Although these are only partial results, they have already confirmed our geological model and shown that we can successfully target clay-hosted rare earths at Morgans Creek.
“Most of the significant intercepts start at or near the surface in the top few metres.
“Some holes were still in mineralisation when the RAB rig was no longer able to achieve adequate sample return, therefore we believe the base of mineralisation runs deeper than our drilling, in multiple areas.”
“In addition to starting at or near surface, these results include the highest TREO grades we have seen at Morgans Creek, up to 6,068ppm TREO, and the general trend shows that as grade increases so does the heavy rare earth and magnet rare earth content.
“For example, the average concentrations for intercepts over 1,000ppm TREO was 42% HREO and 30% MREO, with 17% of the MREO being the very high-value dysprosium and terbium.
“This is extremely promising as higher levels of dysprosium and terbium markedly increase REE basket value.
“In summary, the combination of surface mineralisation, favourable geology, low levels of cerium, uranium and thorium, and high-value REE basket composition support strong project fundamentals.
“We eagerly await the remaining >65% of the outstanding assays expected back by the end of October, which include the bulk of Hydrothermal Hill main strike extension and infill drill holes.
“We are in the process of planning extensional and infil drilling along the 5.5-kilometre Yednalue Quartzite strike at Morgans Creek, along with assessing other prospective units in the area, such as the Wirrawilka limestone which returned encouraging mineralisation.”
Drill highlights
Taruga’s assays revealed a maximum heavy rare earth content of 65% HREO and a maximum magnet rare earth content of 55% MREO.
In addition to having a high proportion of high-value magnet rare earths, the clay-hosted REE mineralisation at Morgans Creek contains low cerium, low thorium and uranium.
Having low levels of the radioactive elements uranium and thorium is highly beneficial for the downstream processing of rare earth element concentrates.
Low cerium levels also provide significant processing benefits and mean that there are higher concentrations of the high-value REEs in the basket.
Forward plan
Results are primarily from Hydro Hill North, with only three out of 27 holes drilled at Hydrothermal Hill returned to date and >65% of total assays remain outstanding
The vast majority of the Yednalue Quartzite strike remains undrilled with Infill and extensional drill planning is underway.
Several RAB drill holes are believed to have not reached the base of mineralisation and the holes were ended early due to poor sample return.
Therefore, in addition to infill and extensional drilling, aircore or RC drilling will be used for the next phase to drill underneath RAB drill intercepts which are interpreted to have not reached the base of mineralisation.