PERTH (miningweekly.com) - The share price of ASX-listed Sheffield Resources spiked by nearly 10% on Friday after the company announced the discovery of a new potash deposit at its Oxley project, in Western Australia.
A maiden 17-hole, 1 704 m reverse circulation drilling programme returned thick, high-grade potash intervals, the company said in a statement, adding that the drilling tested an 8 km strike length to obtain mineralised widths of up to 75 m, at grades of up to 9.8% potash.
The company also completed three diamond drill holes at Oxley, and core from these holes was currently being processed with results expected in the third quarter.
MD Bruce McQuitty told shareholders that the drilling results exceeded expectations, particularly in terms of thickness and continuity of the mineralised horizon.
“Our Oxley potash project appears to have all the hallmarks of Sheffield’s target strategy: large-scale, bulk mineral deposits within areas of established infrastructure. Additionally, the project is well located with respect to the high-growth Australian and Asian fertilizer markets.”
McQuitty added that the low-cost, staged approach to evaluating Oxley had proven successful to date, and added that Sheffield would now progress to preliminary metallurgical testwork.
“Our work thus far has concentrated on only one quarter of the total strike length of the host unit, and we hope to fully realise the ultimate potential at Oxley as further results become available.”
Sheffield’s shares were trading at a high of 31.5c on Friday, up from a low of 27.5c a share.