The Great Boulder Resources Ltd (ASX: GBR) share price was going gangbusters today before the company entered a trading halt around 30 minutes before market close.
Prior to the pause in trade, shares in the mineral exploration company were trading at 8.3 cents – up an astonishing 80.44%. At one point during intraday trade, shares had more than doubled to a 52-week record of 9.3 cents each.
At the same time, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is currently trading 0.39% higher today.
The company's explosive price growth comes after it announced a "large scale gold discovery" at one of its mines in Western Australia.
News of the trading halt "pending a further announcement" related to other drilling results then followed just seven hours later.
Let's take a closer look at today's news.
Company profile
Great Boulder Resources is a relatively new mineral exploration company with a primary focus on exploration, discovery and delineation of nickel-copper-cobalt and gold resources within the Eastern Goldfields Region of Western Australia. It holds interest in various projects such as Winchester, Mt Carlon, Tarmoola, Yamarna and Whiteheads.
Great Boulder shares strike gold
In a statement to the ASX, Great Boulder declared its results from initial drilling "at the Blue Poles discovery within the Whiteheads Gold Project" in WA.
According to the company, today's results confirmed 450m of gold mineralisation strike at the mining project.
The company highlighted the following results:
- A 40m wide ore with 1.15g of gold per tonne.
- A 40m wide ore with 1.03g of gold per tonne.
- A 15m wide ore with 1.02g of gold per tonne.
The Great Boulder share price is not the only one heading higher today after positive gold announcements. Larger gold miner De Grey Mining Ltd (ASX: DEG) saw its shares increase by 11% at one point today following news of a gold strike.
Great Boulder says it will begin testing at The Gunners prospect after today's results. The company highlighted that The Gunners site is very similar to the Blue Poles prospect where today's results were found.
Gold commodity price
Gold is currently trading for around US$1,785 per troy ounce on the commodities market. It is down 0.36% today and 5.78% since the beginning of the year. It is, however, 3.38% higher over the last month.
The website Trading Economics attributes the precious metal's recent rise to "a weaker dollar and lower treasury yields" as well as fears over rising COVID cases in parts of the world. Gold is seen as a safe investment by some investors and thus, would benefit from pessimistic economic indicators, according to the website.
Great Boulder share price snapshot
Over the last 12 months, the Great Boulder share price has increased 165.5%. Of course, most of this has occurred only today. Before today's astronomical price rise, Great Boulder shares were trading lower when compared to the beginning of the year. At the end of the first trading day of 2021, shares were selling for 4.9 cents each.
Given its current valuation, Great Boulder has a market capitalisation of $21.1 million.
