Six projects from the week's exploration news, read through the rocks they sit in and the people running the rigs. Tap a file for the geology, the team and the sources.
A new zinc-rich lens about 700m from an operating mine, in acidic tuffs along an underexplored corridor.
Five follow-up holes (CCM-91 to CCM-95) after August's discovery hole CCM-90. CCM-94 cut 30m @ 10.1% Zn, 4.9% Pb, 114 g/t Ag; CCM-92 cut 22.2m @ 12% Zn, 1% Cu. CCM-93 was weak and CCM-95 had trace sulphides. About 160m of strike is drilled; downhole EM points to at least 350m. True widths unknown.
The Iberian Pyrite Belt held more than 2,000 Mt of massive sulphide, including Riotinto and Neves-Corvo. La Juliana sits about 700m southeast of the Castillejitos orebody at Aguas Teñidas, in acidic tuffs; Sandfire calls it VMS, the same type as Aguas Teñidas. In the belt's deposits copper tends to sit at the core and zinc-lead toward the hanging wall and edges. La Juliana's zinc-lead-silver grades would fit that outer position (our reading, not Sandfire's).
Outside MATSA's 190 Mt resource (1.2% Cu, 2.7% Zn, Dec 2025), which feeds a 4.7 Mtpa plant from three underground mines. Downhole EM next; a second rig in Jan–Jun 2027 once concessions are granted.
First drilling at Mount Joy, on the same stratigraphic contact as the old Tilt Cove copper mine, 35km from Ming.
Seven holes, 1,923m, the first drilling program at Mount Joy. FFR26-076 logged about 40m of semi-massive sulphide at 240–280m, with stringers past 400m; assays in about four weeks. CuEq in the release counts zinc.
VMS in the Cambrian–Ordovician Betts Cove ophiolite and overlying Snooks Arm Group. Mount Joy sits on the contact that hosted Tilt Cove, found in 1857, which produced about 8.2 Mt of ore and 170kt of copper. The idle Nugget Pond mill is 2.6km away.
Separate from Green Bay's resource (60.2 Mt M&I @ 2.43% CuEq plus 23.5 Mt inferred, Aug 2026). Ming feasibility study due Q1 2027, investment decision mid-2027. Winter road to Mount Joy planned for 2027 drilling.
Epithermal gold on the Northern Nevada Rift margin, about 68m deeper than a historical Evolving Gold hole.
First hole of an OceanaGold-funded program of eight holes, 3,574m. The interval counts a 2.29m stretch of lost core as zero grade. Six step-out holes had no significant gold; the rest are pending, and OceanaGold's earn-in decision waits on them.
Low-sulphidation epithermal gold at the Tertiary unconformity, under Miocene rhyolite and dacite. Northwest-trending rift-margin faults are the main controls; the company points to northwest–northeast fault intersections at Hecla's Midas and Hollister mines, on the same rift, as its model. About 8km east of Turquoise Ridge. Evolving Gold's hole JC-005 (2010–11 program) cut 45.72m @ 0.98 g/t from 210.3m; JC26-01 starts about 68m deeper.
No resource. Headwater runs partner-funded programs for a 10% fee: Newmont (Spring Peak JV, other earn-ins), Centerra (Crane Creek, Idaho, 18 holes pending) and OceanaGold here. OceanaGold has already dropped its earn-ins at Hot Creek and TJ.
A Jurassic porphyry on the belt that runs south into Ecuador's Mirador and Warintza, with more than 1,100m of vertical continuity.
MD-074 ended in mineralization at 903m. Downhole lengths, which the company interprets as very close to true widths. Not in the Oct 14 resource; four holes pending, including La Estrella to the south.
Middle Jurassic dacite porphyry with a potassic core and sericitic cap; chalcopyrite and molybdenite in stockwork and breccia, in a roughly cylindrical body about 600m across. Found in 1973 by a UN and Colombian government stream-sediment survey, drilled 1978–83, later explored by AngloGold; B2Gold drilled in 2008 and 2012 and sold it to Libero in 2018.
0.29 Bt indicated @ 0.54% CuEq and 1.60 Bt inferred @ 0.40% CuEq (released Oct 14, effective Sept 24). Four rigs; PEA due Q4 2026.
Back into an idle underground mine on the Orogrande shear, in a district with a long placer gold history.
Maiden hole, including 11.3m @ 21.4 g/t. Drilled down the structure, so true width is materially less. It runs about 170m past a 2014 hole 8m away, which was reported at 112.8m @ 5.22 g/t; over that span the new hole ran about 2.7 g/t. Phase 1 is eight holes, about 2,850m; next assays late November.
The Orogrande Shear Zone runs about 45km north-south along the contact between the Cretaceous Idaho Batholith and Proterozoic Belt-Purcell sediments. At Friday, gold sits in sheared, sericite-silica altered rock in the hanging wall of the Friday fault.
No current JORC resource; only historical and foreign estimates from Premium Exploration's open-pit work and Endomines' underground. Premium still holds the low-grade rights.
A high-grade RC hit below a producing pit, where the planned underground mine will go.
Visible gold in RC chips, outside the resource model and below the final pit shell. A diamond twin is planned to test whether the width and grade hold. CPRC008, 125m west, cut 3m @ 14.9 g/t and 4m @ 13.5 g/t.
Orogenic gold on the Abbotts Greenstone Belt, 22km northwest of Meekatharra. Gold forms steep, plunging high-grade shoots along felsic–mafic contacts and north-trending structures. Historical underground development at Crown Prince reached about 90m; recorded production was 20,178 oz at a recovered 21.7 g/t.
Producing since Sept 2025. Crown Prince underground resource 1.45 Mt @ 3.2 g/t for 150 koz (June 2026), no underground reserve yet; underground studies due early 2027.
Finished 149 holes, 59,531m in the Clear Creek intrusive complex, Tombstone Gold Belt, between Eagle and Brewery Creek. 90 holes pending; resource updates planned. New chair Tim Termuende, co-founder of Eagle Plains Resources, ex-Cominco. Source
Expanded to 20,000m after a new tuffaceous MTH zone east of the Mosquito resource; orogenic gold near the Dog Bay Line. CEO Ken Lapierre. Source
First-ever drilling: 7 holes, 2,667m on a copper-gold porphyry target in central BC, about 30km west of Mount Milligan. Assays late 2026 to early 2027. CEO Daithi Mac Gearailt. Source
First hole on the property logged sulphides, mostly in vein stockwork, through its full 545m, in a 1,500m-wide IP anomaly in the Stikine terrane. Geochem by year-end; more IP before more drilling. CEO John Mirko. Source
Found the blind Africa vein 50m into the footwall of Europa Sur, cut by three holes in Phase II. Resource update guided for H2 2026. CEO Darrell Rader; VP exploration Stephen Maynard. Source
Third rig for a 20-hole test of Mani, a possible second epithermal system 700–800m south of Yaxtché, which has more than 100,000m of historical drilling. CEO Joaquín Marias, promoted from VP exploration. Source
Started about 6,000m of RC on an undrilled 7km corridor, testing sediment-hosted gold under cover near Westgold's Bluebird. Executive director Matt Freedman. Source
First modern drilling done: 9 holes, 906m under the historic Davis, Stewart and May workings. Assays late November. Chair and CEO Barnaby Egerton-Warburton. Source
AI-compiled from company releases, filings and company bio pages, checked against Ore Please's daily drill digests. Track records are as the companies and cited sources describe them. Intercepts are downhole lengths unless stated.