Aeris Resources Ltd (ASX: AIS) shares are falling today despite seemingly positive news regarding the Canbelego Copper project being released by the company's joint venture partner. At the time of writing, the Aeris Resources share price is trading at 19.5 cents – 2.5% lower than it was at yesterday's close.
However, in earlier trade, Aeris shares jumped 5% to an intraday high of 21 cents each before retreating to their current level.
According to Helix Resources Ltd (ASX: HLX) – which holds 70% of the project – assay results have found thick zones of high-grade copper at the Canbelego project.
The Canbelego project is located around 45 kilometres south-east of Cobar, New South Wales.
Let's take a closer look at the news from Aeris Resources.
Assay results
Currently, the Canbelego project is undergoing a drilling program to update its resource estimate.
Today, Aeris Resources and Helix Resources announced they've received assay results from drill holes including:
- CANDD001 – which intercepted 2 metres at 3.07% copper within a broader interval of 11 metres at 1.10% copper from 270 metres downhole.
- CANDD002 – which intercepted 14 metres at 4.22% copper from 253 metres downhole, including 3 metres at 7.01% copper from 352 metres; and 4 metres at 5.94% copper from 358 metres.
A final drill hole is in progress. The companies are hoping to find further copper near CANDD002.
Aeris Resources and Helix are also testing the assays from the above drill holes for gold. However, they only expect small amounts to be found.
Another drill hole – CANDD004 – found a large amount of chalcopyrite, a copper iron sulphide that is often used as an ore of copper. The drill hole provided assay results including:
- 8 metres with 1% disseminated chalcopyrite logged from 252 metres and 4.8 metres with a variable abundance of chalcopyrite logged from 273 metres.
Helix managing director Mike Rosenstreich said the drilling program has significantly increased the high-grade potential of the Canbelego copper project.
The joint venture partners plan to continue drilling after they receive results from ongoing drill hole electromagnetic surveys.
However, the drilling program has recently been slowed by wet weather.
Aeris Resources share price snapshot
The Aeris Resources share price has been having a party on the ASX lately, despite today's lacklustre performance.
Currently, Aeris shares are up by around 95% year to date. They have also gained almost 520% since this time last year.
The company has a market capitalisation of around $436 million, with approximately 2 billion shares outstanding.
