Shares in Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX: EVN) are up slightly following news of a gold discovery at the Cue Project joint venture area in central Western Australia. At the time of writing, the Evolution share price is trading at $4.54 – 0.33% higher than its closing price yesterday.
Shares in Evolution's joint venture partner, Musgrave Minerals Ltd (ASX: MGV), are also lifting today. Currently, the Musgrave share price is 4.29% higher than its previous close. Its shares are trading for 36.5 cents apiece.
Let's take a closer look at today's news from the gold miner.
Joint venture refresher
Evolution entered into the joint venture and earn-in agreement at the Lake Austin area of Musgrave's Cue Project in 2019.
Under the terms, Evolution will spend $18 million on the site over the 5 years following the agreement in exchange for a 75% stake in the tenement. So far, Evolution has spent $4.6 million.
Today's news
In its release, Evolution advised diamond drilling at the joint venture area had uncovered a new high-grade gold zone.
The zone is over a 400-metre strike and is open to the north, south, and at depth.
Following the results, Evolution has committed to spend another $5 million on exploration activities at the site over the next 12 months.
Assay results from the 4 drill holes that intercepted the discovery include:
- 11.5 metres at 3.2 grams of gold per tonne from 245 metres, including 3 metres at 10.6 grams of gold per tonne from 247.5 metres
- 11 metres at 3.6 grams of gold per tonne from 272 metres, including 5 metres at 5.5 grams of gold per tonne from 276 metres
- 5 metres at 2.7 grams of gold per tonne from 169 metres
- 0.4 metres at 23.5 grams of gold per tonne from 144.7 metres
Musgrave stated the differentiated dolerite unit hosting the discovery was like that of other significant discoveries at the Cue Project.
Over the next 12 months, the companies will conduct another 7,000 metres of diamond drilling to find more targets. The next stage of drilling will kick off next month.
Evolution share price snapshot
Shares in Evolution are having a poor year on the ASX, having fallen 14% year to date.
The Evolution share price has also dropped 20% since this time last year.
The company has a market capitalisation of around $7.7 billion, with approximately 1.7 billion shares outstanding.
Musgrave share price snapshot
The Musgrave share price isn't performing much better than that of its joint venture partner.
Currently, the Musgrave share price is 7% lower than it was at the start of 2021. It has also fallen 25% since this time last year.
The company has a market capitalisation of around $186 million, with approximately 533 million shares outstanding.
