The Alicanto Minerals Ltd (ASX: AQI) share price is today soaring up 20% despite no major news out of the company.
What does Alicanto do?
Alicanto Minerals is an emerging mineral exploration company focused on creating shareholder wealth through exploration and discovery in the mining districts of Scandinavia. The company has multiple projects in Sweden, including the Greater Falun Project in the highly endowed Bergslagen mining district of Southern Sweden. The company mines minerals such as copper, gold, zinc, lead and silver.
What has been driving the Alicanto share price higher?
The company announced its quarterly activities report on 30 July. This release saw the Alicanto share price jump 10% as the miner announced progress on its Swedish projects. However, the real growth started a week later after a trading halt was announced.
What followed was the announcement that Alicanto is planning to raise $1.43 million by way of a private placement. Funds raised from the placement will be used for exploration activities in Sweden and Guyana and general working capital. Perhaps the news that got investors most excited, however, was the calibre of investor taking part in the placement.
The name Ray Shorrocks is well known around micro cap miners and it is he who will now chair the company. In 2016, explorer Bellevue Gold Ltd (ASX: BGL) acquired a tiny Western Australian gold project. This 'tiny' project has since seen the Bellevue share price return around 4900%. You may be wondering why this is relevant, and it is because Ray Shorrock was the investor behind this turnaround. So it is understandable that investors are once again excited by the prospect of a mining unicorn in his latest investment, Alicanto.
What now for Alicanto?
It was recently announced that drilling is set to start next month in Sweden. The program will target extensions to known mineralisation as part of a strategy to underpin a central processing hub in this mining area. The greater Falun area has never been properly explored as, through the area, was a VMS (volcanogenic massive sulfide) system, making mining futile. However, it is now believed that the dominant mineralisation is in fact copper and gold skarn with high grade by-products of silver, zinc and lead.
The Alicanto share price has been exploding this year and is up 521% from its March lows. At the time of writing, the Alicanto share price has smashed through its 52-week high and is sitting at 18 cents.
