Amarc stock doubles on gold-copper discovery at JOY project in British Columbia

Amarc Resources (TSXV: AHR) has more than doubled its share price following the announcement of a high-grade discovery at the district-scale JOY copper-gold property located in north-central British Columbia.

The discovery resulted from initial drilling of the Northwest Gossan (NWG) target area, located at the end of a possible 15 km mineralized trend within the 495-sq.-km JOY district that had not been previously drill tested. Work programs are being fully funded by Freeport-McMoRan, who could earn an interest in the JOY project, while Amarc serves as the program operator.

According to Amarc, the new AuRORA discovery represents a new porphyry copper-gold-silver system hosting high and continuous gold grades. Discovery hole JP24057 returned 1.24 grams per tonne gold and 0.38% copper from 18 metres, including 1.97 g/t gold and 0.49% copper from 58 metres.

Dr. Diane Nicolson, Amarc’s CEO, called the AuRORA discovery “a pivotal moment” for the company and “a significant inflection point” in the exploration of the JOY district with Freeport.

“Our discovery is the culmination of years of relentless groundwork by the Amarc team, coupled with the firm, unwavering belief, shared by Freeport, that the JOY district holds significant potential for high-grade porphyry gold-copper deposits,” she stated in Friday’s news release.

Shares of Amarc Resources gained 21% on Monday morning in Toronto to C$0.87 apiece, having already surged to $0.72 on Friday from C$0.40. Its market capitalization is estimated at $192.1 million.

More drilling

Following the completion of JP24057, the Amarc-Freeport team went ahead with an aggressive step-out drilling program with a view to begin outlining an outstanding copper-gold-silver deposit and confirm its high-grade potential.

Friday’s news release also included results of six other holes drilled at approximately 100-metre intervals at the NWG target. These returned gold grades as high as 3.69 g/t and copper grades of up to 0.92%.

Amarc said drilling on this section has established a 600-metre-wide zone of porphyry mineralization encountered from near surface that is open to lateral expansion, characterized by excellent lateral and vertical continuity.

The company also noted that the AuRORA discovery area is only one of eight large-scale sulphide mineralization systems clustered along several trends drilled in 2024 at the JOY property. These sulphide systems, including the 2.5-km-long Pine deposit, were established by 290 line km of property-wide surveying, with drill results pending.

Amarc currently has 100% ownership of all mineral claims within the JOY district, part of the underexplored Toodoggone region near BC’s Golden Triangle.