Taruga Minerals Limited

Exceptional Rare Earth Drill Results At Morgans Creek

Taruga Minerals Limited (ASX: TAR, Taruga or the Company) is pleased to advise that the second batch of key assays have been returned for the rare earth focussed drilling program at Morgans Creek (100% TAR), within the 1,500km2 Mt Craig Project (MCP; 100% TAR). The program was comprised of 2,156m of RAB drilling over 59 drillholes. Drilling (Figure 2) was focussed on testing strike extensions of clay-hosted rare earth element (REE) mineralisation intercepted at Hydrothermal Hill in 2021 in weathered Yednalue quartzite (Figure 1).

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Exceptional clay-hosted REE grades of up to 9,082ppm (0.91%) TREO1 with multiple holes mineralised from surface and to end of hole (EOH)
  • New assays extend mineralised strike by 300%, from 1.4km to 4.3km (open)
  • Very high basket average of 34% MREO2 (Nd + Pr + Dy + Tb), which is significantly higher than the peer average of 25% MREO, with high levels of Dysprosium and Terbium
  • The mineralised rare earth clays assayed contain low deleterious elements, including low
  • cerium, low thorium and uranium, low calcium, and low aluminium
  • Metallurgical proxy testwork produced high MREO and TREO recoveries3, indicating high REE solubility in a weak acid environment and therefore potential for a simple and low- cost metallurgical flowsheet, consistent with ionic and colloidal REE mineralisation
  • Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), world leaders in ionic adsorption clay metallurgy, have been engaged to conduct advanced ionic leach testwork on Morgans Creek REE clay samples with initial results expected late November
  • Mineralisation is concentrated primarily within weathered Yednalue formation which has a continuous strike of over 5.5km at Morgans Creek with exposures over 300m wide
  • Drill highlights include:

MCRB044 (Hydrothermal Hill)

  • 43m @ 1,687ppm TREO from surface to EOH (40% MREO) including:
    • 5m @ 3,343ppm (0.33%) TREO from 12m, with 1m @ 9,082ppm (0.91%) TREO from 13m (44% MREO)
    • 14m @ 2,979ppm (0.30%) TREO from 29m to EOH, with 2m @ 7,052ppm (0.71%) TREO from 29m (42% MREO)
MCRB045 (Hydrothermal Hill)
  • 40m @ 1,582ppm TREO from surface to EOH (41% MREO) including:
    • 17m @ 2,636 (0.26%) TREO from 11m, including
      • 5m @ 4,930ppm (0.49%) TREO from 19m with 1m @ 6,234ppm (0.62%) TREO from 21m
MCRB053 (Hydrothermal Hill)
  • 31m @ 1,444ppm TREO from surface to EOH (44% MREO) including:
    • 2m @ 2,656ppm (0.27%) TREO from 16m, and
    • 6m @ 3,903ppm (0.39%) TREO from 22m with 2m @ 5,760ppm (0.58%) TREO from 24m

MCRB040 (Hydrothermal Hill)

  • 55m @ 678ppm TREO from surface to EOH (25% MREO;) including:
    • 14m @ 1,230ppm TREO from 41m to EOH with 4m @ 2,190ppm (0.22%) TREO from 45m

Strike Extension Drilling – 2.7km south of Hydrothermal Hill “Hydro Hill South”

MCRB057 (Hydro Hill South)

  • 45m @ 726ppm TREO from surface (34% MREO), including
    • 5m @ 1855ppm (0.19%) TREO from 17m (37% MREO)
CEO Thomas Line commented: “These are remarkable intercepts. They are by far the highest grades we have seen at Morgans Creek to date, with the highest grade exceeding 9,000 ppm TREO. Many of the intercepts start from surface and end in mineralisation with some holes ending in high grade. The new results increase the mineralised strike at Morgans Creek from 1.4km to 4.3km. We are excited to return to complete systematic drilling over the Yednalue formation and other new clay-hosted REE targets at Morgans Creek early in Q1 2023.

We completed metallurgical proxy testwork on REE intercepts at Morgans Creek early in 2022. The results showed a high proportion of readily soluble REEs were extractable in a weak acid solution, supporting a low cost and simple metallurgical flowsheet consistent with ionically and colloidally bound REEs.We are very excited to be working with ANSTO, the world leaders in ionic REE leach metallurgy. We have selected a range of representative samples from Hydrothermal Hill which are on their way for analysis, with initial results expected in late November”.


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This article includes content from Taruga Minerals Limited, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.

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