Golden Mile jumps on fresh WA gold hits—and new evidence of hot commodity nickel

Golden Mile (ASX:G88) investors have pushed the company’s share price up 10% in early afternoon trade as the company confirms more gold hits at its WA acreage. 

That news is joined by an additional discovery on-site; anomalous nickel concentrations. Only six kilometres away to the east, Empire Resources (ASX:ERL) boasts a nickel-copper play at Smith Well. 

This is surely part of today’s rally, on top of the gold. For those in the know, the presence of nickel is likely causing some interest too. The usually unassuming metal is coming back to the fore as a critical component of EV batteries. 

Case in point: BloombergNEF notes nickel demand will only increase for the next decade (at least.)

What did Golden Mile find? 

Investor info provider Undervalued Equity notes that gold grades above 5 grams per tonne (g/t) are considered ‘high grade.’ There is no one Oxford definition for high grade, however, and many Australian projects boasting 4g/t grades are also considered ‘high.’ 

With that in mind, Golden Mile has delivered the following results from the project.

• 4m @ 2.69g/t from 16m depth

• 4m @ 2.27g/t from 4m depth

The short core samples so far return evidence of mid-grade gold mineralisation at Yuinmery. 

Worth remembering, like any troubled student can tell you, is that grades aren't everything. A project with vast mid-grade mineralisation can well outperform a small high-grade operation. 

What’s next at Yuinmery? 

The microcap is to proceed its early stage exploration with further drillworks at the Elephant Reef, Ladies Patch and Hammerhead targets, identified in geochem (surface) studies. 

In procedural fashion, Golden Mile will spend the rest of the year: 

• Re-sampling assay samples to better determine the dimensions of mineralisation on-site

• Extend magnetic and geophysical surveys to the north and southeast, capturing all prospect targets

• Launching aircore drilling as an infill exercise before a ramped up RC run at priority areas of interest

• Continue to probe the potential of nickel mining at the project

How much these works will cost will determine whether or not the company needs to raise cash in some way or another. 

At the end of the June quarter, Golden Mile held less than $2m in cash. With limited information surrounding its position with regards to hire rates for drill rigs and labour, investors will likely need to wait for the company’s full year results to ascertain a better picture. 

Interest in these results will likely be strong, given the company’s rocky travel through 2022 thus far. 

Year to date performance is down -34% and one year returns are down -43%, as investors go risk-off and sentiment takes a dive in the face of conflating factors (read: war, inflation, recession.) 

But the potential is clearly there: one week returns are up 19.23%. 

A look at Golden MIle's three month charts. Is this the start of an upward trend?