KUALA LUMPUR: Shares of Borneo Oil Bhd have rallied to a two-year high in early trade today after announcing a gold deposits discovery in one of its mining plots.
The counter surged 60 per cent to eight sen in morning trade, its highest in over two years, but pared some gains to trade at 40 per cent or two sen higher at seven sen at midday.
Borneo Oil was the most active counter at midday.
The strong investors' interest comes after Borneo Oil's announcement yesterday that it would proceed with excavation and mining on the first zone of Bukit Ibam in Pahang.
Borneo Oil said the site wa believed to contain total resources of 22,200 ounces or 621,917 grams of gold in 1.66 million tonnes of ore with an average grade of 0.42 g/t.
The findings was affirmed by Dr Yves Cheze, a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists as well as the Institute Geology Malaysia.
Cheze also recommended BornOil to develop the exploration of not only the immediate extension of the first zone but also in several other zones in the mining area that have similar geology as they may hold significant potential for additional gold resources.
Back in May 2010, an exclusive agreement had been inked between Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Pahang and HDL Global Sdn Bhd for the prospecting and mining rights to an area covering 1,200 hectares within Hutan Simpan Bukit Ibam in Pahang.
Subsequently in March 2015, BornOil via an exclusive production sharing agreement with HDL, was granted the sole and exclusive right to prospect, explore, mine, extract, process, sell and collect all revenue of sales with respect to all minerals and precious metals including gold over the said area.
Gold prices have been on the rise and, for the first time, breached the US$2,000 an ounce mark a few days ago.