Shares of RNC Minerals (TSX: RNX) soared by over 22% on Thursday聽鈥� taking the stock to over C$0.50 for the first time in two months 鈥� after 聽yesterday at its Beta Hunt mine in Western Australia. This is the second discovery of significance at Beta Hunt in the past nine months.
Last September, RNC of high-grade gold from a single blast at the Beta Hunt mine in what some geologists were calling a 鈥渙nce-in-a-lifetime鈥� discovery. Many of the specimens recovered聽鈥� the largest of which weighed in at 94 kilograms聽鈥� were among the biggest ever found in Australia.
That discovery helped to boost the mine鈥檚 production by last year and brought in the funds for RNC to acquire the nearby Higginsville gold operation.
The new discovery of coarse gold this week, just 25 metres beneath the Father鈥檚 Day vein (named after the day on which last year鈥檚 discovery was made), amounted to 987 ounces of the precious metal recovered in 238 kilograms of rock, according to early estimates. This is equivalent to $1.9 million worth of gold at today鈥檚 price.
A final estimate will be provided once this material has been processed, the company says. RNC is currently completing a 40,000-metre drill program, which will be incorporated into an NI 43-101 resource estimate and a mine plan targeted for Q2 2019.
In addition to Beta Hunt,聽the company is also focused on the Dumont nickel project in the Abitibi mining camp of Qu茅bec, Canada. This joint venture is expected to be one of the largest nickel sulphide operations in the world by annual production.