Ashton Mining of Canada Inc. shares jumped on Monday, hitting a 52-week high, as the diamond explorer confirmed it had found diamonds in two previously extracted core samples taken from a site in Quebec, Reuters reported.

Ashton was up 33%, at C$2.19 (U.S.$1.33), on the Toronto Stock Exchange just after midday, topping its previous year-high level of C$2.16 after the company announced the presence of 34 macro diamonds-diamonds greater or equal to 0.5 mm in one dimension-in samples retrieved from a site in the Otish mountains of northern Quebec.

Ashton stock has quadrupled in value since Sept. 11, as a string of good-news reports from sites in Nunavut and strong funding have driven up hopes that the company will soon start to show some revenue.

JCK