The Kuniko Ltd (ASX: KNI) share price has been an exceptionally strong performer on Thursday.
In afternoon trade, the battery metals explorer's shares are up 96% to a record high of $1.50.
This means the Kuniko share price is now up a staggering 650% since spinning out of Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd (ASX: VUL) earlier this week.
Why is the Kuniko share price rocketing higher?
Investors have been bidding the Kuniko share price higher today following the release of an update on its exploration activities in Norway.
According to the release, geochemical sampling programs are now underway, kicking off a significant schedule of activity across its projects in Norway.
The company notes that it is exploring a suite of historical producing battery metals projects, with minimal previous modern exploration.
For example, the Skuterud Mine produced over one million tonnes of cobalt from 1773- 1898, and at the time was both the world's largest cobalt producer and the largest company in Norway.
In addition, the company's Vangrøfta licence hosts the historical Fredrick IV mine, from which 30 years of small-scale production occurred up until 1908. Positively, more recent rock chip samples reported rock chip results up to 16.75% copper, 3.33 g/t gold, and 0.216% cobalt from historical mine workings and dumps at the project.
New data to augment existing data sets, and to be integrated with upcoming airborne geophysical programs, is scheduled for September. The same month the first new assay data is expected to be released.
Management commentary
Kuniko's Chairman, Gavin Rezos, commented: "Kuniko has been positioned to meet the high demand for a sustainable supply of ethically mined battery metals sourced from within the European Economic Area (EEA) in response to the EV revolution."
"Norway, which has a long history of mining and is a world leader in renewable energy production, is now looking to reinvest in its mineral deposits as it transitions away from North Sea fossil fuels production to help the EEA meet this demand."
"Kuniko aims to extend historical battery metals resources on our project sites by applying modern exploration and processing methods, whilst applying the same ESG culture to our projects to demonstrate a zero-carbon footprint that we have learnt from Vulcan, who importantly has retained a 25.85% stake in the company," he added.
The Kuniko share price began trading on the ASX at 20 cents on Tuesday.
