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Taruga Minerals completes due diligence drilling at DRC projects, confirms high-grade cobalt potential
2018-09-14 00:36:00
The high cobalt price gives further impetus to expedite development of the projects.

Taruga's projects are in the far south of the Democratic Republic of Congo


Taruga Minerals Ltd (ASX:TAR) has completed due diligence drilling at its Mwilu and Kamilombe projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), highlighting the cobalt potential of the projects and supporting further drilling.

On successful conclusion of due diligence, which has been extended to 30 September, Taruga will enter into a binding joint venture agreement with the Consortium of Mint-Master and the Government of Lualaba Province.

The company has also received the second tranche of a placement announced in June, totalling $500,000 at the subscription price of 21 cents per share.

High-grade cobalt assays
The best intersection at Mwilu was: 6.4 metres at 1.11% cobalt from 282.45 metres and 8.4 metres at 2.7% copper from 269.15 metres, within 42.85 metres at 0.39% cobalt from 256.55 metres.

This hole intersected the same 30-metre-wide zone at 250 metres below surface where channel sampling had previously reported 19.32 metres at 0.33% cobalt, including 9.87 metres at 0.55% copper at surface.

This confirmed mineralisation down to a vertical depth of 280 metres.

A significant copper intersection of 13.05 metres at 2.02% copper from 264.5 metres, including 8.4 metres at 2.7% copper from 269.15 metres, was reported from the same zone.

Continuous mineralisation has been defined over a width of 700 metres and over a potential strike length of 2 kilometres.

Amenable to both underground and open cut mining
Taruga executive director Mark Gasson said the excellent results from drilling at Mwilu and Kamilombe had confirmed the high-grade cobalt potential for both projects.

Gasson said: “We now eagerly await to conclude the due diligence on both projects which will allow us to sign a joint venture agreement, which incorporates both Mwilu and Kamilombe.

“Two styles of mineralisation occur at Mwilu, each with potential to host significant cobalt mineralisation.

“The northern flat lying zone is of lower grade, but mineralisation attains thicknesses of more than 30 metres, with a combined thickness of 90 metres in one hole, which makes it conducive to open pit mining.

“The southern zone is high grade and steeply dipping and is likely amenable to an underground operation.”

“The due diligence drilling at Mwilu and Kamilombe has highlighted high-grade cobalt mineralisation over widths, which is hard to find anywhere else in the world.”

High cobalt price
Mwilu and Kamilombe lie within the Kolwezi ‘Klippe’, within the Central African Copper Belt, which hosts many of the largest known copper-cobalt stratiform deposits.

The company plans to conduct metallurgical test work on ore samples to determine whether simple treatments, such as heavy media separation or gravity separation, will concentrate the shallow cobalt mineralised material found at Mwilu.

Subject to positive feasibility studies, Taruga plans to begin early mining operations to take full benefit of the current cobalt price.