NGEx soars on wider copper-gold zones at Lunahuasi

NGEx Minerals’ (TSX: NGEX; US-OTC: NGXXF) shares skyrocketed Monday after the release of high-grade copper-gold results at its Lunahuasi project in northwest Argentina show drilling continues to expand galactic zones.

Highlight hole DPDH051 cut 327.4 metres along the Saturn zone grading 2.43% copper and 1.53 grams gold per tonne from 436.7 metres depth, including 4.3 metres at 12.67% copper and 62.11 grams gold, NGEx reported Monday. That hole also intersected 7.3 metres grading 10.98% copper and 2.5 grams gold from 716 metres depth, and 5.8 metres at 11.97% copper and 2.73 grams gold.

“The holes released today continue to support our geological interpretation and expand the size of the Mars, Jupiter and Saturn zones,” NGEx President and CEO Wojtek Wodzicki said in a release. “They also reinforce Lunahuasi’s gold potential, with new high-grade intersections in holes DPDH050, DPDH051 and DPDH054.”

NGEx shares surged more than 5% to an all-time high of $30.06 apiece on Monday morning in Toronto, boosting the company’s market value to about $6.47 billion (US$4.6 billion).

Lunahuasi stands out

The DPDH051 results and others on Monday come after several months of NGEx reporting thick, high-grade intersections at Lunahuasi that places the project among the top tier for copper-gold results in South America.

Lunahuasi sits about 6 km north of Lundin Mining (TSX: LUN) and BHP’s (ASX: BHP) joint Filo del Sol deposit and 8 km west of Lundin’s Josemaría, both major copper-gold projects.

NGEx has held Lunahuasi since 2022 and last August released a technical report for it. The company’s drill program could support an initial resource though it hasn’t specified plans to release one.

‘Very high-grade core’

Another noteworthy hole, DPDH054, targeted the Mars zone and cut 94 metres grading 3.88% copper and 6.66 grams gold from 271 metres depth, including 21.7 metres at 12.70% copper and 25.21 grams gold, which forms a very high-grade core, NGEx said.

DPDH052, drilled across the Saturn zone, returned a highlight interval of 13 metres at 3.9% copper and 1.44 grams gold from 395.4 metres depth.

The results are part of NGEx’s stage four drill program that started in December, of which more than 12,000 metres have been drilled across 12 holes, potentially making it the company’s largest ever program. Initial holes have focused on defining and expanding the planetary zones. Drilling is to eventually shift towards larger step-outs and testing new targets.