A fertile molybdenum system has been uncovered at the Merino prospect within Taiton’s Highway project. Pic via Getty Images
Life is a Highway for Taiton Resources with over 1,000m of molybdenum intersection
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- Taiton Resources intersects molybdenum over a width of 1,000m and a strike of 1.1km at Merino
- Drilling also intersected epithermal mineralisation assaying up to 92g/t silver with anomalous base metals
- Attention to turn outwards to areas such as the Garfield prospect that could improve the tenor of molybdenum mineralisation
Special Report: Drilling has uncovered evidence that Taiton Resources’ Highway project in South Australia is a significant molybdenum play with mineralisation intersected over a width of more than 1,000m.
The underexplored 2,930km2 Highway project hosts shallow magmatic-hydrothermal mineralisation interpreted to have formed at the same time as the world-class Olympic Dam deposit in South Australia’s Gawler Craton.
Olympic Dam is one of the one of the world’s largest iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposits and the fourth largest copper deposit globally.
Soil sampling carried out by Taiton Resources (ASX:T88) in the second half of 2023 identified a coherent 2.5km molybdenum anomaly, while maiden drilling completed in September confirmed the presence of molybdenum at the Merino prospect.
Molybdenum is an irreplaceable critical component within the production of steel and stainless steel, and was recently included in the Australian Government’s critical minerals list.
Fertile molybdenum system
The second drill program completed in November 2023 at the Merino prospect has now outlined the potential scale of the project.
Broad-spaced drilling intersected low level (>100ppm) molybdenum mineralisation over a strike of more than 1km and a width of over 1,000m – a result that supports the presence of a fertile system.
Adding interest, the program also found evidence of an epithermal system with assays returning up to 92g/t silver associated with low level (0.1g/t) gold and anomalous base metals (>1% lead and >0.1% copper and zinc).
T88 noted that while the second drill program had demonstrated an improvement in the width, height and continuity of molybdenum mineralisation in the northern-most line drilled, the tenor and geology intersected indicates that the Merino prospect represents the lower grade core of a system.
The epithermal results also add an interesting layer to the Highway story and further exploration will take this potential style of mineralisation into consideration.
‘Encouraging’ results, more exploration to follow
“The results from this phase of drilling are encouraging. The broad spaced mineralisation footprint that has been defined from Phase 1 and Phase 2 drilling are clear evidence that molybdenum mineralisation exists at Highway,” T88 executive director Noel Ong said.
“Drilling to date is interpreted to place Merino in the lower core of a mineralised intrusion and based on this, Taiton will now look to expand its exploration program outwards of Merino to areas that have potential to improve the tenor of molybdenum mineralisation.
“The Garfield prospect is one such target that is located approximately 8km south-southeast of Merino where preliminary assessment has identified an area of interest.
“Heritage approvals have been completed for surface geochemical sampling and ground geophysical surveys and the company will initiate exploration on completion of the data review.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Taiton Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
