Today, the Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM) share price is up almost 5% following the release of an exploration update by the company. The update reported strong drilling results from its Havieron and Red Chris sites. It’s preparing to expand known mineralisation during a time when gold is fetching $1733.31 per ounce.

Havieron

Newcrest commenced drilling at its Havieron Western Australia site in June 2019 and has continued to increase drilling activity since. It currently has 9 drill rigs in operation at the site with 20,200 metres drilled since the end of March 2019. This project is operated under a farm-in agreement and Newcrest now holds a 40% interest. Newcrest can earn up to a 70% joint venture interest in the project should it invest US$65 million and meet a series of exploration and development milestones by 2026.

According to the announcement, the drilling conducted at Havieron will expand known mineralisation by a further 220m. It also saw the best significant intercept at Havieron to date with 109m at 6.3g of gold per tonne.

In the report, Newcrest Managing Director and CEO, Sandeep Biswas said,

“We are excited by the drilling results at Havieron and Red Chris. At Havieron we have returned our best drill result to date and with the step out drilling result we see real potential to further expand this orebody. Getting underground is now the priority and we continue to progress the work to commence decline development by the end of this calendar year or early 2021.”

Red Chris

The Red Chris site is located in Canada and is a joint venture with Newcrest holding a 70% interest. The company has had an interest in this site since August 2019. Newcrest reported a total of 10,686 metres of drilling has been completed since the March quarter. Since the company entered the joint venture, this has equated to 40,069 metres of drilling. 

Drilling at Red Chris has been separated into 2 campaigns, one at the East Zone and one at Brownfields Exploration. The report stated, “Infill drilling at Red Chris has confirmed continuity of high grade within East Zone’. This positive news may have contributed to the increase in the Newcrest share price.

About the Newcrest share price

The Newcrest share price is up 44% from its 52 week low of $20.70. It is slightly up from its $29.82 price at the beginning of 2020. The Newcrest share price was looking hopeful before the coronavirus crisis hit. It has since recovered and is now $29.87 at the time of writing.

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Motley Fool contributor Chris Chitty has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has followed the lead of U.S. markets and is dropping notably lower on Thursday. In afternoon trade the benchmark index is down a disappointing 2.3% to 6,007.9 points.

Four shares that have fallen more than most today are listed below. Here’s why they are dropping lower: 

The Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price is down 3% to $52.78. This appears to have been driven by profit taking after some strong gains by the payments company this month. In fact, on Thursday the Afterpay share price jumped to a new record high of $54.85. When its shares hit that level, they were up a whopping 585% from their March low.

The Amcor PLC (ASX: AMC) share price has fallen almost 4% to $13.87. Investors have been selling the packaging company’s shares after it was downgraded by analysts at Credit Suisse. According to the note, the broker has downgraded its shares to a neutral rating with a $15.65 price target. It made the move on valuation grounds after a strong rally since March.

The Computershare Limited (ASX: CPU) share price is down over 6% to $13.15. The catalyst for this decline appears to have been a broker note out of Citi. This morning the broker downgraded Computershare’s shares to a sell rating with a reduced price target of $12.00. The broker believes trading conditions are challenging and expects it to be a couple of years until the company’s earnings rebound.

The Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price has sunk a sizeable 5% lower to $18.74. Investors have been selling Westpac and the rest of the big four banks on Thursday. This may be due to profit taking after some very strong gains over the last few weeks. Even after this decline, the Westpac share price is up 23% over the past three weeks.

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James Mickleboro owns shares of Westpac Banking. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Amcor Limited. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The Breaker Resources NL (ASX: BRB) share price is flying higher today after investors responded enthusiastically to promising drilling results.

At the time of writing, Breaker Resources shares are up 17.39% to 27 cents apiece. This takes the company’s current market capitalisation to around $62 million.

Breaker Resources is a small-cap ASX gold explorer. It is focused on discovering and developing new gold deposits hidden by transported cover in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields Superterrane.

Breaker Resource’s cornerstone project is the 600 square kilometre Lake Roe Gold Project. The project is located 100 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie and comprises 7 granted exploration licenses plus a mining lease.

Why is the Breaker Resources share price spiking?

This morning, Breaker Resources announced that preliminary drilling results have highlighted the potential for a significant gold discovery at the Kopai Prospect within the Lake Roe Project.

These results relate to the first 32 reverse circulation (RC) drill holes of a 60-hole program targeting the 2 kilometre Kopai-Crescent area.

Preliminary results from the first 32 RC holes include:

• 4 metres at 4.54 g/t gold from 84 metres;
• 4 metres at 2.68 g/t gold from 20 metres; and
• 4 metres at 2.53 g/t gold from 20 metres.

Breaker Resources stated the results are significant given the geological setting and wide-spaced nature of the drilling. Four of the five more significant drill intercepts are situated on the end of drill lines.

The first 32 RC drill holes represent a total of 3,445 metres of drilling and an average depth of approximately 108 metres. Most assays relate to composite samples over 4 metre intervals.

The mineralised zone is concealed by less than 5 metres of transported cover, extends for at least 600 metres of strike, and remains open and sparsely drilled.

The immediate aim of the drilling is to assess and scope the full potential of the 9.5 kilometre-long aircrew gold anomaly centred on the 1 million ounce Bombara deposit.

“The Kopai results reinforce Breaker’s belief that Lake Roe is a new, large gold camp centred on the 1Moz Bombora deposit, which itself continues to expand at depth,” the announcement read.

Results are pending for a further 28 RC drill holes. Meanwhile, the company is planning follow-up drilling at Kopai, which will include shallow diamond drilling to obtain early information on the host rocks and mineralised structures.

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Motley Fool contributor Cathryn Goh has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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