Sirius soars on nickel discovery

Shares in Sirius Resources surged after the minerals explorer announced a nickel discovery in Western Australia. Managing director Mark Bennett said the company had found 138 metres of mineralisation at its Frasers operation near Nova in the southeast of WA. Sirius has named the new zone of nickel sulphide Bollinger. The shares rose 79¢ to close at $2.85 on Friday after trading as high as $3.09. In December Sirius said it was encouraged by metallurgical test results on the Nova nickel-copper mineralisation. Hartleys analyst Mike Millikan said any new good-grade nickel and copper acreage would have a positive effect on the company's share price. In July last year Sirius had just three staff and $1 million in the bank as its share price languished near 5¢. That all changed when it announced the Nova discovery.