The Red Dirt Metals Ltd (ASX: RDT) share price has slipped from its all-time closing high of 85 cents on 12 October to 68.5 cents in late afternoon trade today. That's a fall of 19%.
This week alone Red Dirt shares have slipped 14%, running down from a high of 80 cents on Monday. The current price is 3.52% lower than yesterday's closing price.
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What's up with the Red Dirt Metals share price?
Red Dirt set a new record high last week after it announced an update on its Mt Ida Project, which it acquired in late September.
The company advised it had intersected spodumene – a source of lithium – after drilling at the project. It struck a pegmatite level with a concentration of up to 63% spodumene found.
Of the four samples taken from the successful drill hole, 1 assay contained 63% spodumene concentration, whereas another had a 53% concentrate.
The company is still waiting on additional results from its drill program but is pleased with the outcomes thus far.
Interestingly, stumbling across lithium wasn't Red Dirt's main objective when acquiring the Western Australia mine. It is actually a gold project that includes the historic Timoni Gold Mine, plus more.
Combined, the mines at Mt Ida have produced more than 300,000 ounces of gold over years.
It was only after conducting its due diligence that it acted on the advice of a "lithium specialist". At that point, it "began reviewing the historical data in relation to the lithium potential" at the site.
Red Dirt will now commence a subsequent drill program at the Mt Ida site. It's planning a 25,000 metre program using a mix of reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling.
What else has Red Dirt been up to?
Curiously, the company did put out a non-price-sensitive release on Wednesday. This showed its response letter to a set of questions from the ASX in relation to the Mt Ida announcement.
The ASX penned the 20-question inquiry asking Red Dirt to 'please explain' a number of factors around the timing of the announcement.
ASX compliance basically wanted to know why it took the company so long from when it received the lithium results, to when it made the announcement public.
Red Dirt provided colour for each question. It confirmed earlier points that the company was not initially aware of the lithium finds and that the test interpretations had several days turnaround time.
It claimed once results were obtained, due to the number of entities with vested interests in the site, they took several days to process.
Nonetheless, investors don't appear overly pleased with the company today and certainly aren't in a buying frenzy to get a piece of it.
Red Dirt Metals share price
The Red Dirt Metals share price has climbed 137% since January 1 this year and has rallied around 213% in the last 12 months.
Both of these returns outpace the S&P/ASX 200 index (ASX: XJO)'s climb of around 20% in that time.
