Canadian Junior Up 66 Percent on “No Material Change”?

Though Canadian exploration company Romios Gold (TSXV:RG) was trading at just $0.05 at Tuesday’s close, that price represented a 66-percent rise for the day and brought the company’s market cap to $7.92 million. However, investors and market watchers were left scratching their heads as to the reason for those gains.

Roughly 1.27 million shares of Romios traded hands on Tuesday, many multiples more than the company’s 30-day average trading volume of 8,678. At the request of the IIROC, the company released a statement to clarify that it is “unaware of any material change in the Company’s operations that would account for today’s increase in market activity.”

Despite the surge in trading volume on Tuesday, there has been little recent insider activity for the company. CEO Tom Drivas purchased 35,000 common shares of Romios at a unit price of $0.03 on Monday, but there haven’t been any other transactions for at least the past three months.

BC’s Golden Triangle

Romios has properties in British Columbia, Nevada, Ontario and Quebec, but has recently been focused on its properties in the Golden Triangle area of Northwestern BC.

According to Seeking Alpha, that area is quite prolific. It’s also home to Pretium Resources’ (TSX:PVG) Brucejack property, which has turned up multi-kilogram gold intercepts, as well as the Galore Creek and Schaft Creek projects, majority owned by Novagold (TSX:NG) and Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.B). The Golden Triangle hosts Barrick Gold’s (TSX:ABX) now closed Eskay Creek mine — formerly the the highest-grade gold mine in the world — and Romios’ Newmont Creek project is located just 30 kilometers away.

On September 23, Romios announced results from its 2014 exploration program at the Burgundy Ridge discovery. Fieldwork returned favorable results from rock chip samples in the realm of 0.47 percent copper, 0.27 g/t gold and 3.77 g/t silver, with Drivas stating that “[f]urther prospecting and mapping is planned at Burgundy Ridge” to extend mineralization at the property and to identify drill targets.

In any case, those interested in gold juniors will be happy to have seen what looks like a bright spot in the market, and will be watching the company for further developments.

Securities Disclosure: I, Teresa Matich, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.