The Clean TeQ Holdings Limited (ASX: CLQ) share price is up 9.84% at 34 cents in late afternoon trading today. This follows the company's ASX announcement this morning updating investors on the new drilling program at its Sunrise project in New South Wales.
Today's gains see Clean TeQ's share price up 20% so far in the month of October. Despite falling 60% during the COVID-19 market rout earlier this year, the Clean TeQ share price is up 52% year-to-date, reflecting a 205% gain since 24 March.
For comparison, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is down 6% so far in 2020.
What does Clean TeQ Holdings do?
Melbourne-based Clean TeQ Holdings is a global leader in metals recovery and industrial water treatment through the application of its proprietary continuous ion exchange technology. This is via its wholly owned subsidiary Clean TeQ Water.
The company is also the 100% owner of the Clean TeQ Sunrise Project in New South Wales. According to Clean TeQ, this counts among the largest cobalt deposits outside of Africa, and has some of the largest and highest-grade accumulations of scandium on the planet.
Clean TeQ has a market cap of $250 million.
What did the Clean TeQ share price gain 10%?
This morning, Clean TeQ announced that it had mobilised a drill rig at its Sunrise Project site to start a 6-hole diamond core drill program.
Clean TeQ is hopeful the drilling – reaching 400 to 600 metres below ground – will intersect dunite structures that are proposed to be the source of platinum in the Sunrise laterite at the surface.
According to the company, the Sunrise laterite hosts a significant platinum resource of 103.1 Mt @ 0.33 g/t Pt for 1,076,170 ounces of platinum, using a 0.15 g/t Pt cut-off grade. Around 90% falls in the measured and indicated categories.
This places it amongst the largest platinum resources in Australia. The company notes that the average grade is relatively low. However areas of significantly higher-grade platinum mineralisation exist inside the resource envelope.
Clean TeQ stated:
Given the high platinum grades near surface and historic intercepts beneath the laterite, a program of work has commenced to test the structural geology of the Tout Intrusive Complex and to establish a platinum resource that will either integrate with the development of the Sunrise nickel-cobalt-scandium mine, or be developed as a stand-alone operation.
Clean TeQ shareholders are no strangers to volatility. Depending on the results of the diamond core drilling program, the Clean TeQ share price could move sharply in either direction.
