The First Assay
Wednesday Drill Digest
TSX · TSX-V · CSE · NYSE-A · Nasdaq · September 30, 2026
4 companies
16 qualifying holes
2 jurisdictions
Four companies cleared the screen on a thin, Au-and-Cu-led Wednesday, and ICG Silver & Gold owns the sheet: T26RC-04 at Tuscarora, Nevada returned 24.3 m at 10.14 g/t Au from 181 m, including 4.6 m at 51.84 g/t, an Exceptional 246 g/t·m on a roughly C$16M market cap. Arizona Gold & Silver added broad, deeper Au-Ag envelopes at Philadelphia (70.4 m at 1.16 g/t Au), Hercules Metals put 286.5 m at 0.43% Cu (0.58% CuEq) into the Idaho porphyry at 860+ m depth, and NordX posted 2.35 m at 0.62% U₃O₈ in its first Riutta hole in Finland. Coverage note: nine in-window releases were screened; IDEX Metals (tungsten, image-table data) could not be verified and is listed under Not Screened. No company has a 2+ day streak.
⚑ Hole of the Day
◉ Shallow · From 181.4m
USA · Stable
Epithermal
ICG Silver & Gold ICG CSE · C$16M
Tuscarora District (Battle Mountain target), USA
T26RC-04: 24.3m of 10.14 g/t Au* from 181.4m
incl. 4.6m of 51.84 g/t Au from 195.9m
GT
246.4 g/t·m
ExceptionalAuEq·m
246.4
Au basis
GT/MCap
15.42×
(Au)
Deposit
Epithermal
ICG's T26RC-04 cut 24.3 m at 10.14 g/t Au starting at 181 m, with a 4.6 m core at 51.84 g/t Au (and 10.2 g/t Ag) and a 1.5 m spike at 137 g/t. That is a GT of 246.4 g/t·m, Exceptional, in an epithermal Au-Ag system near the Independence and Carlin trends, and at a shallow start depth that leaves open-pit-style geometry on the table. At C$16M (approximate, JMN sidebar) the GT/MCap is 15.42×, the highest on the sheet by more than an order of magnitude — but that is a micro-cap effect, and one hole is one hole. Caveats: reported as depth of sample with true width not determined, and the sister hole T26RC-05 was weak (15.2 m at 0.73 g/t), which reads like a narrow high-grade zone rather than a broad system. It ranks #54 of 983 Au AuEq·m results in our Sept 4–30 archives. Watch for step-outs around T26RC-04 and how much of the 246 g/t·m sits in the 4.6 m core.
* Drilled widths — true width not determined pending geological modelling.
GT/MCap Spotlight — Top 5
ICG's ratio is a C$16M micro-cap effect and is not comparable to the rest; the best cleaner ratio is Arizona Gold & Silver PC26-172 at 0.89× (81.7 g/t·m on C$92M). Au and Cu are on different price bases — not directly comparable across metals.
ICG T26RC-04 Au ◉ ★ HOTD15.42×
AZS PC26-172 Au0.89×
AZS PC26-173 Au0.70×
ICG T26RC-05 Au0.69×
BIG HER-26-01 Cu0.38×
◉ From depth ≤200m (shallow) · ⚠ High jurisdiction risk · ~ Moderate jurisdiction risk · ✓ True width stated · ★ HOTD
Today's Qualifying Intercepts — Top 10 of 16
| Rating | Company | Metal | Hole | m | Grade | GT | AuEq·m | GT/MCap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exceptional ★ | ICG Silver & GoldICG | AuEpithermal | T26RC-04* | 24.3 ◉ | 10.14 g/t | 246.4 | 246.4 | 15.42× |
| Exceptional | ICG Silver & GoldICG | AuEpithermal | T26RC-04* | 4.6 ◉ | 51.84 g/t | 238.5 | 238.5 | 14.93× |
| Exceptional | ICG Silver & GoldICG | AuEpithermal | T26RC-04* | 1.5 ◉ | 137.0 g/t | 205.5 | 205.5 | 12.86× |
| Great | Arizona Gold & SilverAZS | AuEpithermal-LS | PC26-172* | 70.41 | 1.16 g/t | 81.7 | 81.7 | 0.89× |
| Great | Arizona Gold & SilverAZS | AuEpithermal-LS | PC26-172* | 32.86 | 2.12 g/t | 69.7 | 69.7 | 0.76× |
| Great | Arizona Gold & SilverAZS | AuEpithermal-LS | PC26-173* | 43.59 | 1.48 g/t | 64.5 | 64.5 | 0.70× |
| Exceptional | Hercules MetalsBIG | CuPorphyry-Cu | HER-26-01* | 286.52 | 0.58 % CuEq | 166.2 | 221.4 | 0.38× (Cu) |
| Great | Hercules MetalsBIG | CuPorphyry-Cu | HER-26-01* | 65.54 | 0.80 % CuEq | 52.4 | 69.8 | 0.12× (Cu) |
| Great | NordX MetalsNRDX | UOther | SWM26001* | 2.35 ◉ | 0.62 % U₃O₈ | 1.5 | 29.7 | 0.07× (U) |
| Great | NordX MetalsNRDX | UOther | SWM26001* | 1.1 ◉ | 1.10 % U₃O₈ | 1.2 | 24.6 | 0.06× (U) |
↗ View all 16 intercepts in Google Sheets+6 not shown: ICG T26RC-05 (Good, 0.69×), AZS PC26-173 ×3 (Great/Good, 0.33–0.70×), AZS PC26-172 ×2 (Good, 0.15–0.36×)
Near-Miss
| Near-miss | Lithium AfricaLAF | Li₂OPegmatite | NB1DD26-003* | 7.5 ◉ | 1.97 % Li₂O | 14.8 | 21.5 | 0.66× |
| Near-miss | Lithium AfricaLAF | Li₂OPegmatite | NB1DD26-003* | 6.0 ◉ | 2.27 % Li₂O | 13.6 | 19.9 | 0.61× |
| Near-miss | ICG Silver & GoldICG | AuEpithermal | T26RC-05* | 7.6 | 1.27 g/t | 9.7 | 9.7 | 0.61× |
| Near-miss | Masivo SilverMASS | AgPolymetallic | CC-26-001* | 32.5 | 7.0 g/t Ag | 227.5 | 7.2 | 65.37 (Ag)× |
Lithium Africa: Li₂O Good threshold is >16 %·m; NB1DD26-003 reaches 14.8. Masivo passes on the polymetallic normalized-sum screen (0.79); its C$3.5M market cap looks low and is unverified, so the ratio is not meaningful. Hercules and NordX GT/MCap are below 0.4×.
✓ True width stated in PR · * Drilled width — TW not determined · ◉ From ≤200m (shallow)
GT thresholds — Au: Good >10, Great >50, Exceptional >200 g/t·m · Cu: Good >20, Great >40, Exceptional >150 %·m · U₃O₈: Good >0.15, Great >0.75, Exceptional >5 %·m · Li₂O: Good >16, Great >36, Exceptional >75 %·m
Hercules is rated on the PR's CuEq × interval (0.58% × 286.5 m = 166.2); Cu-only GT is 123.2 (Great).
AuEq: Au $3,200/oz · Ag $33/oz · Cu $13,700/t · APT $3,300/mtu · NdPr $70/kg · GT/MCap uses C$ mkt cap at September 30, 2026
GT thresholds — Au: Good >10, Great >50, Exceptional >200 g/t·m · Cu: Good >20, Great >40, Exceptional >150 %·m · U₃O₈: Good >0.15, Great >0.75, Exceptional >5 %·m · Li₂O: Good >16, Great >36, Exceptional >75 %·m
Hercules is rated on the PR's CuEq × interval (0.58% × 286.5 m = 166.2); Cu-only GT is 123.2 (Great).
AuEq: Au $3,200/oz · Ag $33/oz · Cu $13,700/t · APT $3,300/mtu · NdPr $70/kg · GT/MCap uses C$ mkt cap at September 30, 2026
Not Screened
IDEX Metals (IDEX · TSX-V · C$41.9M) — Freeze Property, Idaho. Tungsten enrichment in six 2025 Kismet holes (e.g. 28.0 m at ~0.20% WO₃). The assay table is an image and the rows we could retrieve were inconsistent between reads (and partly a re-report of July 9 results), so nothing was screened or archived. Carried to the unread backlog for a proper read.
Glenstar Minerals (GSTR · CSE · C$4.2M) — Wildhorse, Nevada. Single-sample highlights only (Zn >1%, 31.2 g/t Ag, 0.42% Cu), no from/to intervals; gold assays pending.
Harfang Exploration (HAR · TSX-V) and Prospectiva Resources (PSVA · TSX-V) — surface grab/channel/float sampling only, no drill assays.
Gold Terra (YGT) — visual mineralization only, assays pending. King Global (KING) — tailings sampling, not drilling.
Glenstar Minerals (GSTR · CSE · C$4.2M) — Wildhorse, Nevada. Single-sample highlights only (Zn >1%, 31.2 g/t Ag, 0.42% Cu), no from/to intervals; gold assays pending.
Harfang Exploration (HAR · TSX-V) and Prospectiva Resources (PSVA · TSX-V) — surface grab/channel/float sampling only, no drill assays.
Gold Terra (YGT) — visual mineralization only, assays pending. King Global (KING) — tailings sampling, not drilling.
THE FIRST ASSAY
thefirstassay.com
Au $3,200/oz · Ag $33/oz · Cu $13,700/t · APT $3,300/mtu
Not investment advice.
Not investment advice.
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