The Castle Minerals Limited (ASX: CDT) share price has been on a tear over the past 5 days.
Up 3.33% at time of writing today, Castle Minerals shares have soared an eye-popping 77.78% in a week.
Below, we look at the lithium exploration update that seems to be driving investor interest in the ASX resource minnow.
What lithium exploration update did Castle announce?
The Castle Minerals share price has been surging at such a rate the ASX issued a price query last Friday.
The miner responded to its fast-rising share price. Castle Minerals said it wasn't aware of any announced information to the market which, if known by some, may explain the gains.
The company did note that various stock market trading forums "created a large amount of speculation around the company's general value" last Thursday and Friday.
Today Castle Minerals reported that it has applied for 2 exploration licences. The licences are prospective for lithium-bearing pegmatites at its Woodcutters prospect in Western Australia.
The licences, located in the Bald Hill pegmatite field, would extend the company's lithium footprint by 242 square kilometres. This would complement its Wilgee Springs lithium and Kambale graphite battery metals sector projects.
Commenting on the exploration licence applications, Castle Minerals' managing director Stephen Stone said:
We are very pleased to have applied for open ground at Woodcutters in the renowned 'Western Australian lithium corridor' which is also host to the Mt Marion and Bald Hill deposits
The 2 applications… encompass some 10 kilometres of the same prospective belt where GSWA mapping has confirmed the presence of numerous pegmatites but where it did not specifically sample for lithium. What is encouraging is there are elevated levels of lithium recorded in multi-element geochemical data obtained from regolith sampling during exploration for gold in 2011.
Castle Minerals share price snapshot
So far in 2021, the Castle Minerals share price is up 220%. That compares to a year-to-date gain of 11% posted by the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO).
Over the past month Castle Minerals' shares are also up 220%.
