The Encounter Resources Ltd (ASX: ENR) share price is rocketing on Thursday. This comes after the company announced it has received positive assay results over the Sandover project in the Northern Territory.
At the time of writing, the exploration and resource development company's shares are up 15.38%, trading at 15 cents apiece.
What did Encounter announce?
The company has confirmed high-grade copper mineralisation at Sandover.
In today's release, Encounter advised that recent surface sampling and mapping have returned up to 20.9% copper mineralisation. This is spread across 4 separate areas around 6km apart at the Sandover project.
Encounter noted each site comprised a red-bed sandstone sequence with multiple, narrow grey shale units containing copper oxide mineralisation.
The next steps will see the company engage with experts to conduct further on-ground mapping and sampling activities. Planned to start in March/April 2022, the exploration program will focus on identifying where these units intersect along the basin forming structures. The company believes these areas have the potential to host major mineral deposits.
Management commentary
Encounter managing director Will Robinson said:
The confirmation of outcropping high-grade copper over a large area is a promising start to exploration at Sandover.
Sandover covers a Zambian copper belt aged, sub-basin on the southern margin of the Georgina Basin, approximately 170km north of Alice Springs. Access is excellent with the Stuart Highway and Ghan railway extending through the western margin of the project. Further areas of interest have been identified at Sandover and will be sampled at the start of the 2022 field season.
We are engaging with experts in Zambian style copper deposits to assist in the design of exploration programs to fast track this emerging copper opportunity in the Northern Territory.
About the Encounter share price
While the Encounter share price has accelerated today, the same cannot be said for the past year. In the last 12 months, the company's shares are down roughly 3%, and almost 8% lower for 2021.
Encounter is a small-cap ASX share, valued at around $47.52 million. The company has approximately 316.82 million shares outstanding.
