Local micro-cap explorer Azure Minerals became the darling of the junior mining sector yesterday, jumping more than 250 per cent after declaring a significant copper hit in Mexico.
From its starting point of 1.8�, Azure rose in the latter half of the day to close at 6.4� after announcing a handful of copper strikes including one of 2.3 metres at 15.2 per cent copper.
Other grades included 4.75m at 5.6 per cent copper and 4.5m at 9.25 per cent copper – all noteworthy grades that caught the eye of investors. Almost a quarter of the company’s shares, or 128 million, changed hands yesterday.
The results were from drilling at the Promontorio Project, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
Azure managing director Tony Rovira said find was outside Promontorio’s mineral resource boundary and had not previously been tested for exploration.
The current JORC resource at Promontorio stands at 502,000 tonnes at 4.7 per cent copper, 2.1 grams of gold per tonne and 99gpt of silver.
Azure, which has a market capitalisation of $35 million, will more than likely have enough money to avoid going back to market to fund its exploration program for this quarter.
It had $2.9 million in the bank on September 30, with an expected outlay of $1.1 million to December 30. Three more holes at the prospect are to be drilled, with an updated resource estimate expected in April.
