The IGO Ltd (ASX: IGO) share price is ratcheting higher today and currently trades 5.36% in the green at $15.035 apiece.
Investors are rallying the share today following an update from the diversified mining giant's partner at the Mt Alexander Project, located in Western Australia.
Let's check the latest.
What's behind the IGO share price?
IGO has a stake in various tenements at the Mt Alexander site along with St George Mining Ltd (ASX: SGQ).
Today, St George announced updated results amid a lithium exploration program being conducted at the site.
The current program is concentrating on two tenements where "extensive pegmatite outcrops continue to be mapped".
For IGO, the relevant claim is E29/638, 75% owned by St George with IGO holding the remaining 25%.
The announcement notes there are an increasing number of pegmatite outcrops, identified through field mapping studies at Mt Alexander.
All samples have been submitted for lab testing, following visual observation of potential spodumene and lepidolite minerals in the collected rock.
Speaking on the announcement, St George executive chair John Prineas said both parties are "delighted" with progress:
We are seeing thick pegmatite dykes spread over a zone more than 15km long in the same corridor parallel to the Copperfield Granite where major discoveries have been announced by Red Dirt Metals. We are increasingly excited by the potential that Mt Alexander may form part of the same pegmatite hosted lithium mineral system.
Meanwhile, the $11 billion company by market cap, IGO has retraced all of the gains it had given away in 2022 and is now trading back at its 52-week highs.
Helping push the IGO share price back to this level has been the price of lithium. The commodity has also recently pushed back to all-time highs.
This has certainly helped ASX lithium shares rally hard in the new financial year with companies such as IGO continuing to trade higher.
The company is trading at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 32.15 times with a trailing dividend yield of 0.71%.
As such, it trades at a premium to its peers in the diversified mining index, according to data from Refinitiv Eikon
With this most recent rally, IGO shares have now spiked to a 67% gain over the past 12 months.
