The Auroch Minerals Ltd (ASX: AOU) share price is soaring after news on the company's Saints and Nepean projects.
The company announced it's begun scoping studies at the Western Australian nickel projects to access potential mining scenarios.
Right now, the Auroch share price is 19 cents, 19.35% higher than its previous close.
Let's take a closer look at today's news from the mineral explorer.
Scoping studies begin
The Auroch share price is surging as the company begins studies to assess the potential for an open-pit mine at Nepean and underground mines at Nepean and Saints.
The company hopes the studies will help it build its offtake agreement for Saints with BHP Group Ltd's (ASX: BHP) Nickel West. The company also expects the studies will help it potentially produce nickel sulphite soon.
Auroch believes Nepean's shallow nickel sulphate deposits could bring cash flow for the company in the medium term.
Additionally, Auroch updated the market that its high-impact diamond drill programme at the Nepean Deeps target is continuing schedule. The first drill hole is currently 400 metres into its planned 1,200 metre depth.
Commentary from management
Auroch's managing director, Aidan Platel, commented on the news driving the company's share price today, saying:
With the nickel price consistently around US$ 19,000/t and forecast to increase, we believe there is great potential to take both projects forward to production and hence generate significant cash flow for the company in the medium term, and so we are eager to evaluate the economic viability for several different mining scenarios at these two projects.
We have developed a good relationship with the processing team at BHP and have an existing off-take with them for Saints, so we are keen to develop this further and to potentially build a solid business case to provide high-grade nickel sulphide feed for their processing facilities to produce Class 1 nickel products required for batteries for the fast-growing electric vehicle (EV) market.
Parallel to these studies, we continue with our aggressive exploration for a new nickel sulphide discovery across all three of our WA nickel projects.
Auroch share price snapshot
The Auroch share price has gained 23% year to date. It is also 131% higher than it was this time last year.
