The First Assay
Tuesday Drill Digest
TSX · TSX-V · CSE · NYSE-A · Nasdaq · August 4, 2026
2 companies · 6 qualifying holes · 1 jurisdiction
Canadian exchanges reopened after Monday's Civic Holiday to a thin tape — two names on the sheet, both Canadian VMS explorers capitalised at roughly C$14M. Ramp Metals at Rottenstone SW and HM Exploration at Lewis Pilley's each delivered broad, shallow polymetallic intercepts that clear the screen on width rather than tenor: nothing today rated better than Good. The compensating signal is value-per-dollar — every qualifying hole prints a GT/MCap above 0.7×, which is what a two-micro-cap day looks like.
⚑ Hole of the Day
◉ Shallow · From 123mExtension · Step-outCanada · StableVMS
Ramp Metals RAMPTSX-V · C$14.4M
Rottenstone SW (Rush), Canada (Saskatchewan)
Rush-019: 28.23m of 0.86% CuEq* from 123m
incl. 4.0m of 4.84% CuEq (1.18% Cu, 13.28% Zn, 9.7 g/t Ag) from 139m
GT 24.3 %·m Good | AuEq·m 32.3 CuEq basis | GT/MCap 1.69× (CuEq) | Deposit VMS |
Rush-019 is the widest continuous zone Ramp has cut at the Rush target — 28.2m of 0.86% CuEq from 123m, carrying a 4.0m core of 4.84% CuEq. The bulk grade is unremarkable; the geological point is continuity. Ramp says it hit mineralization in every hole drilled at Rush this year, and Rush-019 helps tie together Rush-001 and Rush-010, the two best holes from 2025. At 123m the zone sits in open-pit range, but true widths are undetermined and 28.2m is a drilled length — treat it as an upper bound. On a C$14.4M cap that is 1.69× GT/MCap, top of today's sheet, though the ratio flatters a company whose value is essentially one untested target. Against the recent copper record it ranks poorly: FireFly's Green Bay batch published yesterday alone carried more than twenty Cu intercepts at higher AuEq·m. The thing to watch is the borehole EM — casing is in at Rush-014 and Rush-016, and the newly confirmed Deep Zone (0.6m of 7.77% CuEq) is the higher-tenor target.
* Drilled widths — true width not determined pending geological modelling.
GT/MCap Spotlight — Top 5
All five are copper-basis ratios today, so they are directly comparable to each other.
RAMP Rush-019 CuEq◉★ HOTD — 1.69×
HM PI-26-008 Cu◉ — 1.48×
RAMP Rush-018 CuEq◉ — 1.45×
HM PI-26-009 Cu◉ — 1.04×
HM PI-26-010 Cu◉ — 0.76×
Ramp's Rush-019 tops the sheet at 1.69×, with HM's PI-26-008 close behind at 1.48× — an unusually tight top-two spread. The compression is a market-cap artefact rather than a quality signal: with only two ~C$14M explorers reporting, ordinary intercepts generate ratios that would look extraordinary on a mid-cap sheet.
◉ From depth ≤200m (shallow) · ⚠ High jurisdiction risk · ~ Moderate jurisdiction risk · ✓ True width stated · ★ HOTD
Today's Qualifying Intercepts
| Rating | Company | Metal | Hole | m | Grade | GT | AuEq·m | GT/MCap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | HM ExplorationHM | AuVMS | PI-26-008 (LL)* | 6.32 ◉ | 1.63 g/t | 10.3 | 25.2 | 0.73 |
| Good★ | Ramp MetalsRAMP | CuEqVMS | Rush-019* | 28.23 ◉ | 0.86 % | 24.3 | 32.3 | 1.69 (CuEq) |
| Good | HM ExplorationHM | CuVMS | PI-26-008* | 18.45 ◉ | 1.14 % | 21.0 | 51.4 | 1.48 (Cu) |
| Good | Ramp MetalsRAMP | CuEqVMS | Rush-018* | 22.5 ◉ | 0.93 % | 20.9 | 27.9 | 1.45 (CuEq) |
| Good | HM ExplorationHM | CuVMS | PI-26-009* | 7.57 ◉ | 1.95 % | 14.8 | 30.3 | 1.04 (Cu) |
| Good | HM ExplorationHM | CuVMS | PI-26-010* | 5.42 ◉ | 1.99 % | 10.8 | 22.4 | 0.76 (Cu) |
Near-Miss
| Near-miss | Ramp MetalsRAMP | CuEqVMS | Rush-017* | 3.35 ◉ | 4.40 % | 14.7 | 19.6 | 1.02 (CuEq) |
Rush-017 reaches 0.74× the Cu Good threshold but the CuEq is Zn-Pb-Ag driven — only 0.21% Cu in the interval.
✓ True width stated in PR · * Drilled width — TW not determined · ◉ From ≤200m (shallow)
⚠ High jurisdiction risk · ~ Moderate jurisdiction risk
GT thresholds — Au: Good >10, Great >50, Exceptional >200 g/t·m · Cu: Good >20, Great >40, Exceptional >150 %·m · WO₃: Good >1, Great >5, Exceptional >20 %·m (through-cycle APT basis) · TREO: Good >50, Great >200, Exceptional >500 %·m
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 August 4, 2026
REE AuEq requires NdPr% disclosure; "N/A" if basket not specified. Deposit type shown under metal symbol.
⚠ High jurisdiction risk · ~ Moderate jurisdiction risk
GT thresholds — Au: Good >10, Great >50, Exceptional >200 g/t·m · Cu: Good >20, Great >40, Exceptional >150 %·m · WO₃: Good >1, Great >5, Exceptional >20 %·m (through-cycle APT basis) · TREO: Good >50, Great >200, Exceptional >500 %·m
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 August 4, 2026
REE AuEq requires NdPr% disclosure; "N/A" if basket not specified. Deposit type shown under metal symbol.
Not Screened
Lumina Metals (LMCU · TSX) — Nowa Sól / Sulmierzyce / Mozów, Poland. 2026 drilling program update released Aug 3: first Nowa Sól hole completed to 1,900m, preliminary XRF only. No new assay results reported — the quoted 1.10–3.86% Cu and 8–52 g/t Ag at Mozów are historical holes, not this program. Nothing to screen until assays land later this year.
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.
Full data: Google Sheets · raw CSV also saved to Drive · No browser session available this run; article enumeration was search-based, so coverage of the Aug 3–4 window may be incomplete.