The company said it was particularly encouraged by the early stage bedrock results from the high priority Ibanez and Yaffler South targets.

Ibanez, at Gold Road’s 100%-owned North Yamarna tenements, returned 10m at 28.67 grams per tonne gold from 240m, including 2m at 136.57gpt gold, while the nearby Renegade target returned 2.3m at 4.24gpt gold from 67.7m, including 0.4m at 17.28gpt gold.

Anomaly definition results at Mesaboogie and Gilmour Morello warrant follow-up work.

At Yaffler South, part of the 50:50 joint venture with Sumitomo, the best intersection was 10m at 1.06gpt gold from 92m, including 6m at 1.53gpt gold.

Drilling at the Gruyere JV with Gold Fields returned 49.7m at 1.06gpt gold from 87.5m, including 13m at 2.12gpt.

Gold Road executive director, exploration and growth Justin Osborne said the company was pleased to have received a solid set of results across multiple targets.

“It is very pleasing that the hard work and expertise the geology team has put into developing and executing the ranked exploration strategy is bearing fruit,” he said.

“Of particular promise are the high-grade results from the high-ranking Ibanez target where follow-up diamond drilling is in progress to establish the geological controls upon which to base further drilling.”

The company is focusing on exploration while joint venture partner Gold Fields manages the construction of the $532 million Gruyere project.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Paul Hissey said the results were further evidence that Yamarna could be a new gold jurisdiction.

“While the company awaits first gold from Gruyere in 1Q 2019, the ongoing news flow from such results, along with ongoing de-risking of the Gruyere project as construction milestones are met, should provide share price support for Gold Road,” he said.

“With Gold Fields now owning the maximum 10% under the standstill arrangement, we see further upside to the stock’s current share price with either Gold Fields or another party potentially looking to secure an investment in a long-life, large-scale greenfields gold project in Western Australia.” 

Gold Road shares dropped half a cent yesterday to 68.5c, only slightly below the stock’s five-year high of 75c.