The IGO Ltd (ASX: IGO) share price has dipped into the red in afternoon trade on Wednesday.
Shares in the gold and minerals miner are on the way down despite the company releasing an update on its joint venture with Moho Resources Ltd (ASX: MOH).
Let's investigate further.
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A bit of background
Recall that IGO and Moho formed an unincorporated joint venture (JV) to explore and mine at Moho's Buracoppin Gold project back in 2015.
Specifically, the JV pertains to a location known as "E70/4688" on the Buracoppin site. Moho is also the manager of the JV.
IGO has a 30% interest in the venture and the company has the option to contribute "pro-rata to ongoing work" or to convert its 30% interest into a "10% carried interest".
What was announced today?
In news that could weigh in on the IGO share price, the company advised that "encouraging assay results" had been received from the "stream sediment sampling program" at Buracoppin.
The release was made through an announcement from Moho regarding the same assay results.
As per the release, a total of 369 samples were collected and "ten prioritised exploration targets" were identified as a result of the campaign.
These targets were found "within extensive areas of gold anomalism". Some of the gold anomalism was "associated with arsenic and copper", according to Moho.
As a result of the survey findings, "four areas [are] prioritised for further exploration" at the project. As such, an additional tenure has been granted, effectively "increasing [the] Buracoppin project by 12%".
In addition, a "high resolution gravity survey" was completed at Buracoppin. The interpretation of this data "will assist Moho's understanding" of the site.
Investors have sold IGO shares on the update and have pushed the IGO share price into the red on Wednesday.
IGO shares are now exchanging hands at $9.45 apiece, a 2.07% drop from the market open.
IGO share price snapshot
The IGO share price has climbed 47.5% over this year to date. This extends the gain over the previous 12 months to 111%.
Despite this, IGO shares are 3.6% in the red over the past month. They are around 2% in the red over the last week as well.
Nonetheless, both longer-term returns have outpaced the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO)'s returns of around 14% year to date and 25% over the past year.
