Nickel explorer Sirius Resources is suddenly worth more than established miners Western Areas and Perseus Mining after new drilling results triggered another spectacular run-up in its share price.
Sirius shares jumped as much as 74 cents today to an intraday high of $4.08, their highest point since the company was established in its current form in 2009.
They closed the day's trade at $3.92 per share, valuing the company at $880 million.
That put Sirius nearly on a par with uranium miner Paladin Resources and just above nickel miner Western Areas and gold miner Perseus Mining.
Today's big jump followed the company's 79 cents gain on Friday, after reporting the Bollinger nickel discovery.
The stock had been trading between $2.00 and $2.40 for most of the past 3 months, after briefly touching a high of $3.25 in November last year.
However the new drilling results released over the past week have well and truly thrust the stock beyond its old trading range, as confidence grows that Sirius is sitting on a major new nickel zone at its Nova and Bollinger discoveries south-east of Kalgoorlie.
The market has reacted positively to the announcement of the drilling results, which “indicate that the Bollinger deposit is substantial”.
“Drilling has also confirmed that Nova is connected to Bollinger via the mineralised feeder zone” the company said.
Sirius managing director Mark Bennett said “the first follow up holes to the Bollinger discovery hole have confirmed the significance of Bollinger.”
Mr Bennett also said preliminary testing suggested "we may have yet to drill the sweet spot.”
The market reaction today is a strong indication that investors are confident of the claim by Mr Bennett that Nova and Bollinger are part of a significant mineralised system.
“Six rigs have now begun an intensive drilling campaign at Bollinger and adjacent targets,” Mr Bennett said.
Sirius also announced today that assays for the Nova infill holes have confirmed the “robust nature of the deposit”.
The company said that the maiden JORC resource estimate for Nova remains on track for completion in March.
Just last July Sirius had only three staff with its share price hovering around five cents but this all changed with the Nova nickel and copper discovery sending the share price up 689 per cent.