Diamond drill rig arrives at Weioko for maiden campaign
Taruga Minerals Ltd. is pleased to advise that the diamond drill rig has arrived at Weioko and its maiden diamond drilling campaign is due to commence in the coming days at the East Normanby Gold Project, Normanby Island, Papua New Guinea. The drill rig is setting up on Pad 1, at the northern end of the Weioko ridgeline.
Site mobilisation complete, Weioko drilling to commence
The Company confirms that mobilisation of the diamond drill rig to Weioko Gold Deposit is complete, following the securing of CorePacific Drilling (PNG) as drilling contractor on 20 July 2026. Drill Pad 1 is complete, with remaining pads construction and associated access works being finalised for the initial drilling.
Figure 2 below illustrates the extent of historical drilling coverage across the Weioko ridgeline, along with the access track network the Company has used to establish the current drill pad sites. The historical holes cluster across several zones of the ridge, with visible gaps between clusters that remain untested and are being considered as targets for follow up drilling pending results from the current program. This program will target the overlying Weioko Conglomerate sequence, which was also the focus for much of the historic drilling. Feeder structures and depth extensions for targets in the underlying metamorphic unit will continue to be evaluated.
Program designed to validate historical drilling and refine the target model
The ~1,000 metre diamond drill program is an initial reconnaissance and validation campaign, testing selected historical drill and trench results including:
- 64.6m @ 2.2 g/t Au from surface, including 2.9m @ 33.9 g/t Au from 3.1m (drill hole PWED047)
- 51.4m @ 2.0 g/t Au from surface, including 3m @ 16.3 g/t Au from 28m (drill hole PWED041)
- 36m @ 2.7 g/t Au from surface, including 1m @ 29.2 g/t Au from 18m (drill hole PWED035)
- 26.5m @ 2.8 g/t Au from 14m, including 1m @ 15.9 g/t Au from 28m (drill hole PWED042)
- 12m @ 2.5 g/t Au from 25m, incl. 2m @ 6.3 g/t Au from 33m (WEH030)
- 63.8m @ 1.5 g/t Au from 1m, including 6m @ 9.3 g/t Au from 13m (drill hole WEH031)
- 108m @ 2.4 g/t Au, including 28m @ 4.9 g/t Au and 4m @ 21.9 g/t Au (Trench WT1S)
- 68m @ 5.9 g/t Au, including 4m @ 58.9 g/t Au within a zone of 44m @ 8.7 g/t Au (Trench WT1N)
Historical drilling at Weioko was shallow by modern standards, with several holes finishing in mineralisation rather than reaching its base.
Results from the initial holes will be used to refine Taruga’s geological and structural model of the Weioko system, informing the design and targeting of an expanded follow-up drilling program. This staged approach allows the Company to validate the historical dataset with limited initial capital before committing to a broader campaign along the wider Weioko Gold District corridor.
“Getting a rig onto Weioko is a high impact moment for Taruga. It marks the start of our subsurface exploration campaign and the first test of the high-grade historical drilling, trenching and rock chip results that brought us to Papua New Guinea in the first place. We have kept the objectives deliberately focused, confirm what is already known and use that data to sharpen where we drill next. With success, we will continue drilling beyond the initial 1,000m program and explore the southern strike extent at Weioko”.
PNG Project vendor, Peter McNeil, commented:
“I first went to Normanby island in 1986, and have since been involved in numerous exploration campaigns over several decades – including the last drilling to occur at Weioko in 2009. Those excellent last drill results demonstrated that Weioko has significantly more and higher-grade gold mineralisation to be delineated and I’m delighted that Taruga is back with the drill rig testing the orebody and its full potential”.
Weioko anchors a district-scale opportunity
Weioko sits within an 8km mineralised corridor extending from Wenasia in the south to Sipupu in the north (Weioko Gold District), itself part of a broader 40km low sulphidation epithermal gold belt across the East Normanby Gold Project. Unlike most highland projects in PNG where access challenges hamper exploration efforts, these coastal projects all benefit logistically with barge access providing direct delivery of personnel and consumables for exploration, drilling programs and camp upgrades.
Recent surface sampling at the southern and northern extents of the system returned rock chip results of up to 33.1 g/t Au & 223 g/t Ag at Wenasia (sample 701737) and 25.2 g/t Au & 867 g/t Ag at Sipupu (sample 701731), reinforcing the case that the historical drilling results reflect a genuine, laterally extensive gold system rather than an isolated occurrence.
Next steps
- Complete Taruga’s maiden ~1,000m diamond drilling program at the Weioko Gold Deposit, with assay results to be reported to ASX as they are received. Assays will be flown to ALS in Brisbane for rapid turnaround.
- Complete reprocessing and interpretation of historical Controlled-Source Audio-Frequency Magnetotellurics (CSAMT) data and incorporate the findings into assessment of the southern extension
- of Weioko vein system into the Wenasia vein system.
- Advance trenching and infill rock chip sampling at both Wenasia and Sipupu vein zones to define strike extent ahead of advanced drill targeting.
- Continue systematic float and drainage sampling elsewhere across the Weioko Gold District to identify further vectoring targets.
