Core Lithium (ASX:CXO) has excited the boards on HotCopper with the company flagging “shallow” gold hits at around ~50m depth coming at grades of 2-3g/t.

Those results come from the company’s Shoobridge play, but the news is also an indicator of a larger macro catalyst – falling lithium prices have pushed lithium miners to look for a new value proposition.

Since then, Shoobridge has been taking up Core’s time. (For more than one lithium miner, the answer has been gold.)

Helping matters is that the metal has reached record prices after staging a record run in 2024, perhaps not surprising when you take in the world at large as it currently stands.

Core directly noted that on Monday.

“With gold prices now at all- time highs, Shoobridge presents a strategic opportunity for Core Lithium beyond the Finniss lithium project,” the company wrote.

But more responsible for excitement on Monday is that the company has, on the back of drill results – it highlighted two brief intersections on Monday – expanded its RC and diamond drilling campaign on-site.

HotCopper users took that as a sign of confidence from the company’s geotech team. Core Lithium is currently working with a 4.5km soil anomaly of which less than 1km has been covered by drill runs; the company expects the campaign to take around five weeks.

“We have commenced a follow-up drill campaign targeting both depth extensions and new gold zones within the broader 4.5km mineralised trend,” company chief Paul Brown said.

“If results continue to be positive, along with the additional work underway at Shoobridge, we are on track to further expand and unlock … more value [for shareholders.]”

HotCopper users’ excitement could also be borne from the fact CXO now stands to see its share price go up on fundamentals, perhaps easing the shock of losses for some long-time holders who didn’t believe lithium markets would become this lacklustre.

The company first highlighted a number of intersections – all under 10m – at grades less than 2g/t back in September.

Today it highlighted 12m @ 2.93g/t from 56m depth – it’s arguable the only eye-catching high grade result was a 04m intersection at 3.73g/t gold.

CXO last traded at 11.5cps.

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