In what might be considered a bit of an odd trading day, shares of dually-listed Nevsun Resources Ltd. (TSX:NSU)(NYSE American:NSU) moved in opposite directions while the broader North American markets took on heavy selling pressure. Stocks in Canada's main trading hub of Toronto didn't exactly start strong with the TSX Composite narrowly gapping down at the opening bell and weakening as the day went on, but U.S. issues started out with a bang to set new records before traders headed for the hills on worries about a U.S. government shutdown (at least that was what was blamed as the culprit).
Traders may be keeping an eye on Nevsun on Wednesday after the company released assay results after Tuesday's closing bell showing a discovery of high-grade copper-gold mineralization in Serbia. The Vancouver-based company said drilling looking to expand upon the Upper Zone at its Timok project was successful, cutting mineralization 500 meters to the east of the known deposit. The company said the new zone is similar in geology and size (250 meters x 250 meters) to the Upper Zone.
Highlights from the drilling were pointed out from three different holes and included an intersect of 27.0 meters from a depth starting at 396.0 meters grading 2.93% copper and 2.54 grams per tonne gold, or 4.71% copper equivalent.
Other significant assay results from the other two highlighted holes included 3.10% copper and 0.80 g/t gold (3.66% copper equivalent) over 18.0 meters from 569 meters and 3.91% copper and 1.61 g/t gold (5.04% copper equivalent) across 7.5 meters beginning at 474 meters.
Nevsun plans to confirm the mineralization to expand the resource and add to "already stellar project economics." The project is in the Bor mining and smelting complex in eastern Serbia, an area well-documented for metal recovery. At Bor deposits just five kilometers north of Timok, about 144 million tonnes of high-sulphidation epithermal copper/gold mineralization has been mined from 27 individual ore bodies.
Shares of Toronto-listed NSU slipped 2.30% in Tuesday trading to close at $2.98. In New York, shares of NSU edged ahead 0.4% to end the day at $2.40. Since hitting a 52-week low in August, shares of NSU on both sides of the border have been trending upward, but are still down substantially from where they were a year ago.
