Taruga Minerals Hits 4.3% Copper and 1.4g/t Gold Opening New Exploration Corridor
Key Takeaways
- Rock chip sample UARK042 returned 1.4g/t Au and 4.3% Cu — the highest gold and copper grades ever recorded at the Uaroo Ridge prospect.
- Three new in-situ quartz vein samples define a fresh ~500m NE-trending mineralised corridor that cross-cuts the existing ~1km WNW-ESE trend, materially expanding the known exploration footprint beyond its current 2km by 600m boundary.
- Copper grades from the new samples (2.36%–4.26%) are substantially higher than the two previously reported results (both 0.4%), suggesting the NE corridor carries a meaningfully different mineralised character.
- Moodong Well, located 8km northeast of Uaroo Ridge, has been identified as the next priority target within the same tenement, featuring a 1,500m NW-trending quartz-rich shear that parallels the regionally significant Goordeman and Uaroo Faults.
- Taruga has relinquished lower-priority ground across E08/3733 and partial areas of E08/3245 and E08/3734, concentrating its portfolio on Uaroo Ridge, Thowagee, and Moodong Well.
New high-grade gold-copper outcrop confirmed at Uaroo Ridge
Taruga Minerals (ASX: TAR) has confirmed a new high-grade gold-copper outcrop at its Uaroo Ridge prospect within the Uaroo East Project (E08/3734) in the Gascoyne Province of Western Australia. The headline result, rock chip sample UARK042, returned 1.4g/t Au and 4.3% Cu, the highest gold and copper grade recorded at the prospect to date.
This is not an isolated find. Two companion samples from the same outcrop, UARK041 (0.4g/t Au, 2.4% Cu) and UARK043 (0.5g/t Au, 2.6% Cu), reinforce the grade consistency across the exposure. Together, the three samples define a new approximately 500m NE-trending mineralised corridor that cross-cuts the existing approximately 1km WNW-ESE trend, materially expanding the known footprint of the prospect beyond its current 2km long by 600m wide exploration area.
David Chapman, Non-Executive Technical Director
“We first flagged Uaroo Ridge as a priority target during our maiden reconnaissance, with malachite and chalcopyrite visible in surface outcrop. This new soil and rock chip work has now confirmed a second, cross-cutting NE trend and returned our highest gold and copper grades at the prospect to date, opening up a much broader area to follow up.”
When big ASX news breaks, our subscribers know first
What rock chip and soil sampling reveal about a gold-copper system
Rock chip sampling involves collecting fragments of exposed rock at surface, typically from outcrops, to analyse their chemical composition in a laboratory. It is one of the fastest and most cost-effective tools available at the early stage of exploration, giving geologists a direct read on what minerals are present and at what grade.
Soil sampling takes a different approach, collecting material from just below the surface across a grid pattern to detect metals that have dispersed outward from an underlying mineralised source. When rock chip and soil results align spatially, as they do at Uaroo Ridge, it significantly strengthens the case that a genuine mineralised system sits beneath the surface rather than an isolated rock exposure.
The combination of gold and copper together is particularly meaningful. These metals commonly co-occur in certain deposit types associated with hydrothermal and intrusion-related systems, and their joint presence across multiple samples points to a coherent geological source rather than random mineral scatter. When you then add structural complexity, specifically two intersecting trends rather than one, the prospect’s potential expands considerably. Geologists treat cross-cutting structural corridors as preferred targets for follow-up because intersections can act as traps for mineralising fluids, concentrating grade in those zones.
The table below compares the three new rock chip results against the two previously reported samples from Uaroo Ridge.
| Sample ID | Au (g/t) | Cu (%) | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UARK042 | 1.4 | 4.26 | New — highest grade to date | In-situ quartz vein, ~5% malachite |
| UARK043 | 0.5 | 2.57 | New | In-situ quartz vein, ~5% malachite |
| UARK041 | 0.4 | 2.36 | New | In-situ quartz vein, ~5% malachite |
| UARK001 | 0.5 | 0.4 | Previously reported | — |
| UARK028 | 0.4 | 0.4 | Previously reported | — |
The contrast between the new and previously reported samples is clear. The copper grades from the three new in-situ quartz vein samples are substantially higher than earlier results, and the gold grades hold in line, suggesting the newly identified NE corridor carries a meaningfully different character to the original WNW-ESE trend.
A growing prospect within a broader tenement package
Uaroo Ridge and Thowagee confirm a second priority corridor
Uaroo Ridge sits approximately 5km north of Taruga’s Thowagee gold and base metal prospect, both within the same tenement package. The emergence of a second, cross-cutting NE trend at Uaroo Ridge represents a step-change in prospect-scale potential. This is not incremental news — it extends the known exploration area beyond the existing 2km by 600m footprint and opens clear extension targets for further soil and rock sampling in multiple directions.
Moodong Well — the next priority target
Located 8km northeast of Uaroo Ridge within E08/3734, Moodong Well features a 1,500m NW-trending quartz-rich shear ranging from 0.5m to 2m in thickness. A previously announced rock chip sample, UARK031, returned 350 ppm Cu and 120 ppm Pb. The structural setting is the key attraction here: the Moodong Well shear parallels the regionally significant Goordeman and Uaroo Faults, which may represent favourable conduits for mineralising fluids. The company has now identified Moodong Well as the priority prospect for future exploration within the tenement.
Following a systematic prospectivity review, Taruga has relinquished E08/3733 in full and partial areas of E08/3245 and E08/3734, concentrating its retained portfolio on the highest-priority ground:
- Uaroo Ridge (E08/3734)
- Thowagee (E08/3245)
- Moodong Well (E08/3734)
The next major ASX story will hit our subscribers first
Next steps at Uaroo Ridge and Moodong Well
The company has outlined three clear near-term work programmes:
- Carry out magnetic and gravity surveys to build a detailed view of the likely controlling structures across the Uaroo Ridge prospect
- Extend close-spaced soil sampling lines in broad grids to define the full extent of gold and base metal trends identified to date
- Progress targeting at Moodong Well, including soil sampling and geophysical surveys, to test the parallel NW-trending shear system
The discovery of a cross-cutting structural trend at surface, confirmed by both rock chip and soil geochemistry, meaningfully increases the number of drillable targets Taruga can work toward defining at Uaroo Ridge. Moodong Well adds a second active front for near-term target generation across the same tenement, broadening the exploration pipeline beyond a single prospect.
Taruga’s copper-gold targets at Kol Mountain, where seven discrete targets have been advanced in parallel with Gascoyne work, illustrate how the company is running multiple active exploration fronts across its project portfolio at the same time.
Don’t Miss the Next ASX Gold-Copper Discovery
Get FREE breaking ASX gold and copper news delivered to your inbox within minutes of release, complete with in-depth analysis. Join 30,000+ subscribers already ahead of the market at Big News Blast and click the “Free Alerts” button to receive the moment market-moving discoveries like this one are announced.