Metals Australia (ASX:MLS) said it completed 9,482 meters of new diamond drilling at its Lac Carheil graphite project in Canada and drill-hole logging identified the intersection of around 4,000 meters of cumulative graphite-bearing core, according to a Thursday Australian bourse filing.
The program was extended after thicker and more continuous intersections of graphite were observed during drilling, the filing said.
It said that comprehensive sampling and assaying is underway and a mineral resource update is expected in the third quarter.
Geotechnical logging and hydrogeological modeling are also being conducted and the results will feed into the final stages of the ongoing pre-feasibility study, per the filing.
The firm's chief executive Paul Ferguson added that only 6% of the currently mapped graphite trends on the property have been drilled to date.
The firm's shares rose 11% in recent trading on Thursday.