The Ardea Resources Ltd (ASX: ARL) share price surged as much as 15.69% higher today as the company reported "significant" gold exploration results from a new target at its flagship project.
Ardea is a multi-commodity explorer and developer that controls more than 5,100 square kilometres of tenure in Western Australia.
It is focused on advancing its flagship wholly-owned Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt Project (GNCP), which is part of the largest nickel-cobalt resource in the developed world.
Goongarrie is located 80 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie and offers multi-commodity exposure, including nickel, cobalt, aluminium and gold.
Why did the Ardea share price jump today?
The catalyst for today's move appears to be an announcement from the company this morning. In the release, Ardea revealed that first pass regional aircore drilling over a new gold target at GNCP has intercepted significant gold anomalism.
The target is currently unnamed and covers around 2.4 kilometres of strike. It is located 3 kilometres east of the nearest nickel-cobalt deposits that constitute the GNCP.
Significant intercepts announced today include:
- 4 metres at 0.53 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 36 metres;
- 6 metres at 1.83g/t gold from 118 metres;
- 5 metres at 3.91g/t gold from 42 metres;
- 6 metres at 0.50g/t gold from 44 metres; and
- 6 metres at 0.54g/t gold from 66 metres.
The drilling, which consisted of 46 aircore holes for 3,787 metres, was completed at the end of May 2020. A total of 680 samples were collected for assay.
The company is currently awaiting assay results from a resampling program to confirm gold mineralisation thickness and grade.
Once Ardea has received these results, it will complete a more detailed interpretation of the logged geology and assay data.
Ardea noted that deeper drilling is required to confirm the geometry and extensions of gold mineralisation into fresh rock.
"Though at a very early stage, these results from the newly identified Goongarrie South target area suggest strong gold anomalism over an extensive area that has never been systematically explored before this program," said managing director Andrew Penkethman.
After racing to an impressive gain in early morning trade, the Ardea share price pulled back throughout the day to eventually close 5.88% higher at 27 cents. With this rise, the company's market capitalisation currently stands at just over $30 million.
