The market may be under pressure today, but the same cannot be said for one small cap ASX lithium stock.
In early trade, the Astute Metals NL (ASX: ASE) share price was up as much as 115% to a 52-week high of 8 cents.
The lithium explorer's shares have eased back a fair bit since then but remain up by approximately 50% to 5.5 cents at the time of writing.
Why is this ASX lithium stock rocketing?
Investors have been buying the company's shares this morning in response to the release of assay results from the 100%-owned Red Mountain Lithium Project in Nevada, United States.
According to the release, four new holes from the inaugural reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign have returned high-grade mineralisation.
This second batch of assays, from drill holes located centrally within the group drilled so far, demonstrate thicker lithium carbonate intersections than those previously announced. All four holes intersected +70m zones grading over 1,000ppm lithium.
Management has described these results as "outstanding" and believes they indicate the scale and grade potential at Red Mountain. They feel this points to it continuing to emerge as a project of significance in North America.
It won't be long until the next set of assay results are released. The ASX lithium stock advised that assays for the final four holes from the campaign are expected to be received later this month. It notes that, along with other results, this will allow the company to determine the next steps at the highly prospective project.
The ASX lithium stock's chair, Tony Leibowitz, was very pleased with the assay results and notes that they are boosting confidence in the project. He commented:
Our confidence in the scale and significance of this discovery continues to increase with each successful drill-hole at Red Mountain. Assays from the latest four holes have exceeded expectations and returned some very thick, high-grade intercepts which have confirmed robust lithium mineralisation in the middle of the project, between intersections from the discovery holes.
With final assay results expected for the remaining four holes shortly, data from all holes will then be integrated into an updated geological model for Red Mountain with a view to expediting the process to achieving a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate.
Following today's gain (and subsequent pullback), this ASX lithium stock is now up a sizeable 80% since the time last month.
