Hercules Metals (TSXV: BIG) has launched its 2026 exploration campaign, with the program expected to reach up to 30,000 meters of drilling. The program, which is roughly double the total drilling completed at the property to date, follows a 2023 discovery that established the Leviathan porphyry copper system as a significant new American project.
The company has mobilized two drill rigs to the site to execute an initial 12,500-meter phase. Operations are currently focused on five distinct targets along the Leviathan trend. Among the high-priority areas is Southern Flats, where geophysical surveys have identified a large, vertically extensive conductor which is said to be the largest geophysical anomaly identified at the project to date.
Management is also testing the Pegasus and Hook targets, both of which exhibit geophysical signatures similar to the original discovery zone. The Hook target notably returned a chargeability response during recent surveys that mirrors the data from the 2023 discovery hole, HER-23-05.
The technical team has already resumed work on hole HER-25-18, which was paused during the winter at 841 meters. Initial observations from that hole showed potassic alteration and copper mineralization, suggesting the Footwall Zone of the system may be wider than previously modeled.
Expansion to 20,000 to 30,000 metres of drilling is expected to occur after the successful completion of the first phase of drilling.
To address the typical lag in reporting for junior miners, Hercules has also overhauled its on-site sample processing and logistics. These upgrades are intended to reduce the turnaround time for assay results, with the first batch of data from the remaining 2025 holes expected in the coming weeks.
Hercules Metals last traded at $0.59 on the TSX Venture.
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