Shares in mineral exploration company Metal Hawk Ltd (ASX: MHK) charged lower today to finish down 23%.
To close the session, the Metal Hawk share price was down at 32 cents, following a company update on its Berehaven Nickel project.
Metal Hawk reported it has completed a round of drilling at the Commodore nickel sulphide prospect located at the project.
The company has received assay results from the first diamond drill hole at the site. One hole intersected a concentration of 2.32% Nickel from 203.8 metres to 207.2 metres.
Here are the details out of the company's corner today.
What did Metal Hawk announce?
The company provided assay results from four holes it had drilled at the site for 1,210 metres.
Judging from the commentary, the results were a mixed bag for Metal Hawk. One of the holes, BVD003 "did not intersect ultramafic rocks" and suggests the "fertile Commodore ultramafic unit to the south may be offset by up to 200m".
Additional assay results from hole BVNC007 intersected a 3 metre zone of disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation, grading 1.26% Ni from 165m.
The company will follow up this result very shortly with additional reverse circulation (RC) drilling, per the release.
Hole BVNC006, located at the north end of the Commodore site, intersected a 13 metre thick zone of high magnesium oxide (MgO) ultramafic rocks from 151m to 164m – but no mineralisation was observed.
Assays are pending for two separate drill holes which the company hopes will build on the additional test work it has received in recent times.
Investors haven't bought on the news and don't appear to be buying the results either. It is unclear if the market was expecting a better set of outcomes.
What else went down today?
Checking market quote data on the terminal provided by Bloomberg Intelligence, we see an abnormal amount of trading on Metal Hawk shares relative to previous days.
There was a total of 10 trades of over 140,000 Metal Hawk shares today, with one huge lot of 377,919 shares.
In fact, there was a total of 3,011,653 Metal Hawk shares traded today, over 950% more than its 4-week average volume, and a whopping 5,286% more than Thursday.
Not only that, this volume is 6.37% of Metal Hawk's total share float. This equates to a total value of $1.07 million in the company's shares that were bought and/or sold today.
With this type of market activity, in such enormous volumes relative to historical averages for Metal Hawk, the picture starts to form as to what might have pulled the rug from investors today.
What's next for Metal Hawk?
Following completion of the drilling program, follow-up drilling is set to be carried out.
For instance, RC drilling is due to recommence shortly with a number of holes designed to test the position of the "fertile Commodore ultramafic unit".
Aircore drilling is also underway as the company continues to explore prospective zones to the north and south of Commodore.
In addition, Programme of Works (PoW) applications have been submitted for additional regional drilling within the Company's tenements.
Metal Hawk share price snapshot
In the past 12 months, the Metal Hawk share price has gained 27% after rallying a further 43% this year to date.
Both of these results are well ahead of the S&P/ASX 200 index (ASX: XJO)'s gain of around 16% in the last year.
