Auteco Minerals is in a strong position to continue its rapid growth trajectory through 2022.

Just last month, the company boosted the high-grade inferred resource for its Pickle Crow gold project, in Ontario's prolific Uchi Sub province, by 500,000 ounces to 2.23 million ounces at 7.8 grams per tonne gold.

The 30% increase came just six months since the last upgrade.

The resource comprises 1.92Moz at 9.3gpt gold of high-grade quartz vein mineralisation and 304,000oz at 3.8gpt gold in shallow, alteration-hosted resources.

Auteco has added 1.2Moz of gold resources since September 2020 at a discovery cost of just A$17.58 an ounce.

Executive chairman Ray Shorrocks said the 2Moz milestone saw the company join an exclusive club.

According to Auteco, there are 130 resources in the tier one jurisdictions of Canada, the United States and Australia which contain more than 2Moz of gold.

Of those, only 18 have average grades of more than 4gpt gold. Pickle Crow ranks seventh on the list.

The company expects further growth, as a 50,000m drilling program continues with three rigs.

Drilling on regional targets outside the mine area is underway with the first results expected early in the June quarter.

Canaccord Genuity analyst Tim McCormack said the potential for further resource growth was evident.

The Pickle Crow mine produced 1.5Moz of gold at 16gpt until its closure in 1966 and features about 38km of lateral underground development and two 1000m shafts.

Auteco's plan over the next two years is to continue to expand the resource in order to define the extents of the system and "right size" potential future infrastructure.

The company will then start to assess options for underground access, which includes the rehabilitation of Shaft #3, a starter pit and decline or an exploration decline.

Just a week after boosting the resource, Auteco received firm commitments from leading domestic and international institutions to raise $20 million at 8c per share, a slim 4.8% discount to previous trading levels.

The company already had $10.5 million at the start of January. The cash raised allows Auteco to continue to boost resources.

Canaccord has a speculative buy recommendation and 25c price target.

McCormack noted Auteco was trading at $76 per ounce compared to $176/oz for its peers on a global weighted average enterprise value to resource ounce metric.

Auteco has traded in a range of 6.7-13c over the past 12 months.