Junior Nicaragua-focused gold explorer Oro Verde has been blindsided by an opinion piece that recommended the company as a sell.

The company (ASX:OVL) received an ASX ‘please explain’ notice on Friday after shares tumbled nearly 43 per cent to an intra-day low of 0.4c a day earlier.

Oro Verde told the ASX that it was not aware of any information that had not been released to the market that could explain the recent increased trading in its shares.

However, it pointed to the opinion piece as another explanation for significant share price move. Oro Verde did not disclose the publisher of the opinion piece.

“This opinion piece comes as a surprise given that on 12 April 2018 it was announced to ASX that recent drilling had intersected mineralisation at its Topacio project,” company secretary Brett Dickson said in his response letter to the ASX.

He noted that the mineralisation was high-grade – up to 26.8 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold and 381.1g/t of silver in individual samples, over good widths of up to 17.55m, and intersected at shallow depths.

Anything over 5g/t of gold and above 50g/t of silver is usually considered high grade.

OVL shares over the past three months.
OVL shares over the past three months.

Oro Verde’s share price did not move on the back of the April 12 announcement.

The company’s shares recovered somewhat today, adding back 25 per cent to trade at 0.5c by midday.