The WA1 Resources Ltd (ASX: WA1) share price is on the move on Thursday morning.
At the time of writing, the critical minerals explorer's shares are up 10% to $6.20.
Why is the WA1 share price jumping?
Investors have been buying this ASX critical minerals share this morning following the release of further exploration results from the 100% owned West Arunta Project in Western Australia.
According to the release, new high-grade niobium intersections were found from broad 200m-spaced grid drilling.
This means that its high-grade niobium footprint has now extended up to 400m in multiple directions from previously reported results. Importantly, the mineralisation remains open in all directions and the high-grade enriched layer remains laterally unconstrained.
What is nobium?
Niobium is a metal with properties that make it essential as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy.
It is on the critical mineral lists of a significant number of developed and emerging nations including Australia and the United States.
Ferroniobium is the primary saleable form of niobium and represents approximately 90% of established niobium sales globally. It is primarily used as a micro-alloy in steelmaking, providing significant improvements in strength, corrosion resistance, and heat resistance on the alloyed steel.
This makes ferroniobium essential for significant construction projects, automotive applications, wind turbines, and oil and gas pipelines and storage.
'Outstanding potential'
WA1's managing director, Paul Savich, was very pleased with the drilling results. He said:
Today's results are further wide spaced step-out drillholes which extend high-grade niobium mineralisation at Luni by a further 400 metres in multiple directions with new significant intersections.
Along with the promising early-stage mineralogical assessment released previously, this drilling continues to establish the outstanding potential and global quality of this critical metal discovery.
The WA1 share price is now up 340% this year.
