Base metals explorer St George Mining has reported its thickest intersection yet of nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum group elements (PGEs) at the Mt Alexander project.

Investors rejoiced over the news, sending St George’s (ASX:SGQ) share price up 57 per cent to an intra-day high of 33c. Shares edged back to 28c by Friday close.

SGQ shares over the past six months. Source: Investing.com
SGQ shares over the past six months. Source: Investing.com

Drilling results confirmed a thick intersection of up to 17.45m that returned high grades of up to 5.05 per cent nickel and 3.9 per cent copper from the Stricklands prospect.

St George declared the hit its “best ever intersection at Mt Alexander”.

Generally, nickel grades of 2 per cent or higher and copper grades of 1.5 per cent and above are considered high grade.

“The assays have also confirmed strong values for cobalt and PGEs, consistent with other high-grade mineralisation intersected at the Mt Alexander project,” chair John Prineas told investors.

The results include grades of up to 0.21 per cent cobalt and 3.31 grams per tonne of PGEs.

“Drilling continues to confirm extensions to the mineralised ultramafic at Stricklands and we are confident of intersecting further high-grade nickel-copper sulphides,” Mr Prineas said.

Seven of the nine holes drilled so far have intersected nickel and copper sulphide mineralisation.