Nexus yesterday said assays from initial ground reconnaissance at its McKenzie gold project, acquired in January in Ontario's Red Lake district, had returned significant results including 135.4g/t and 9.3g/t gold.

Nexus acquired the project, which has historic grab samples of up to 331g/t, in February for C$150,000 (US$114,000) and 4 million shares.

It also acquired the New Pilot gold project in British Columbia in January for 3.5 million shares, and last week expanded its new Newfoundland holdings, to add to its portfolio of four projects in Burkina Faso.

President and CEO Alex Klenman said McKenzie was a flagship property and Nexus would obtain as much data as possible in the coming months to define drill targets.

"To date the project has now produced several bonanza-grade samples," he said.

"We have just begun our work there so to add more of this type of result at the outset is certainly encouraging."

The company gained more than $307,000 (US$233,000) last month, raising $92,000 at 15c per flow-through unit and about $216,000 at 11.5c per unit.

Nexus shares, which had hit a 52-week low of 7.5c late last month, rose 10.5% yesterday to 10.5c to capitalise it at $7.3 million (US$5.5 million).