Amarc stock doubles on gold-copper find at JOY in BC

Amarc Resources (TSXV: AHR; US-OTC: AXREF) has more than doubled its share price after announcing a high-grade discovery at its JOY copper-gold project 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 copper giant Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX), which could earn an interest in the JOY project while Amarc serves as the program operator.

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

Shares of Amarc Resources gained 21% on Monday morning in Toronto to 87¢ apiece after a surge to 72¢ on Friday from 40¢. It’s market capitalization is $192.1 million.

Amarc CEO Diane Nicolson 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 said in Friday’s news release.

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.

The company also reported six other holes drilled at about 100-metre intervals at the NWG target. These returned gold grades as high as 3.69 grams gold 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 full ownership of all mineral claims within the JOY district, part of the underexplored Toodoggone region near B.C.’s Golden Triangle.