THE FIRST ASSAY
Wednesday Drill Digest
TSX · TSX-V · CSE · NYSE-A · Nasdaq · August 5, 2026
18 companies · 66 qualifying holes · 5 jurisdictions
Gold owned the tape — 18 names and 66 qualifying intercepts, the busiest single session the screen has logged this quarter, and every one of the top ten holes is an Au or Au-dominant hit. Canadian orogenic camps supplied half of them (Timmins, Val-d'Or, Cariboo, Clarence Stream), while the two most interesting numbers sit at opposite ends of the size curve: Revival Gold's 131.7 m of 3.43 g/t at Beartrack-Arnett, and Val-d'Or Mining's 84 m of 3.08 g/t at Perestroika out of a C$21 M shell. Six late-Tuesday releases — Revival, Talon, STLLR, Eastport, Targa and Westward — were missed by yesterday's scrape and are folded in here as catch-up.
HOLE OF THE DAY
Revival Gold RVG TSX-V · C$245M
Beartrack-Arnett (Joss), Idaho, USA · Orogenic · Extension · Deep (from 543 m)
BT26-255D: 131.7 m of 3.43 g/t Au* from 543 m
incl. 42.5 m of 6.56 g/t from 632 m, and 12.1 m of 11.58 g/t from 639 m
GT 452 g/t·m · Rating Exceptional · AuEq·m 451.7 · GT/MCap 1.84×
Revival hit 131.7 m averaging 3.43 g/t gold at 543 m downhole in the Joss area — a 452 g/t·m grade-thickness, the largest Au intercept the screen has recorded in 30 days and comfortably ahead of the next-best (Auro Metals' 325 g/t·m on August 1). The shape matters as much as the number: a broad 3-plus-gram envelope carrying a 42.5 m core at 6.56 g/t is the grade profile of a bulk underground stope, not a narrow vein, and it sits 70 m above BT22-242D and 150 m below BT21-240D — so the high-grade sulphide zone is now stitched across roughly 220 m of vertical extent. At 543 m this is unambiguously an underground target; nothing here feeds the existing oxide heap-leach case. 1.84× GT/MCap on a C$245 M market cap is a real, if not extreme, ratio — Revival is no longer a shell, and the market has already paid for some of this. The caveat is width: these are drilled widths with true width not determined, and Revival's own June disclosure put the Joss true-width factor at roughly 45–55%, which would halve the intercept. Watch for the remaining holes of the 5,500 m program and, more importantly, for a true-width model before anyone underwrites 3.4 g/t over 130 m.
* Drilled widths — true width not determined pending geological modelling.
GT/MCAP SPOTLIGHT — TOP 5
| LSTR LSRC04 Au | 28.39× |
| OCG DH613 AgEq ~ | 12.92× |
| VZZ PE-26-027 Au | 12.46× |
| LSTR LSRC03 Au | 10.39× |
| OCG DH601 AgEq ~ | 7.99× |
Lodestar tops the sheet at 28.4×, but read it for what it is: a C$3.6 M market cap dividing into a genuine 16.8 m of 6.1 g/t Au and 41.1 g/t Ag infill hole at Robbers Knob. At that size the denominator does most of the work — the ratio is a liquidity artefact as much as a discovery signal. Outcrop's 12.9× is a cross-metal AgEq bonanza over 0.71 m and is not comparable to the Au and Cu names at all. The cleanest ratio on the sheet is Val-d'Or Mining at 12.46× — 84 m of 3.08 g/t from 75 m, a real width at a real grade, against a C$20.8 M cap.
TODAY'S QUALIFYING INTERCEPTS — TOP 10 OF 66
| Rating | Company | Hole | m | Grade | GT | AuEq·m | GT/MC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EXC | Revival Gold RVG | BT26-255D | 131.7 | 3.43 g/t Au | 451.7 | 451.7 | 1.84 |
| EXC | Osisko Gold OGG | PSP-26-004 | 4.6 | 95.93 g/t Au | 441.3 | 441.3 | 0.42 |
| EXC | Discovery Mining DSV | DOM26-005 | 1.1 | 278.48 g/t Au | 306.3 | 306.3 | 0.04 |
| EXC | Val-d'Or Mining VZZ | PE-26-027 | 84.0 | 3.08 g/t Au | 258.7 | 258.7 | 12.46 |
| GREAT | Discovery Mining DSV | DOM26-050 | 17.3 | 9.09 g/t Au | 157.3 | 157.3 | 0.02 |
| GREAT | Aztec Minerals AZT | TR26-39 | 88.4 | 1.42 g/t Au | 125.5 | 149.4 | 2.56 |
| GREAT | Galway Metals GWM | BL-323 | 48.0 | 2.6 g/t Au | 124.8 | 124.8 | 1.95 |
| GREAT | Aztec Minerals AZT | TR26-38 | 97.5 | 1.06 g/t Au | 103.4 | 132.6 | 2.10 |
| GREAT | Lodestar Metals LSTR | LSRC04 | 16.8 | 6.1 g/t Au, 41.1 g/t Ag | 102.5 | 109.6 | 28.39 |
| GREAT | West Point Gold WPG | GC26-138 | 30.4 | 2.31 g/t Au | 70.2 | 70.2 | 0.39 |
+56 not shown, incl. TLO 25TK0567A Great 0.12×, VZZ PE-26-030 Great 3.15×, OMI PEP103 Great 0.53×, GWM BL-322 Great 0.83×, OCG DH613 Good 12.92×, LSTR LSRC03 Good 10.39×.
Near-miss: WPG GC26-164 (9.4), RSG LP-26-12 (9.2), LME LBX26-104 (9.1), RSG LP-26-19 (8.6).
Near-miss: WPG GC26-164 (9.4), RSG LP-26-12 (9.2), LME LBX26-104 (9.1), RSG LP-26-19 (8.6).
GT thresholds — Au: Good >10, Great >50, Exceptional >200 g/t·m · Ag: Good >500, Great >2,000 g/t·m · Cu: Good >20, Great >40, Exceptional >150 %·m
AuEq: Au $3,200/oz · Ag $33/oz · Cu $13,700/t · GT/MCap uses C$ market cap at August 5, 2026. Widths are drilled unless stated otherwise.
AuEq: Au $3,200/oz · Ag $33/oz · Cu $13,700/t · GT/MCap uses C$ market cap at August 5, 2026. Widths are drilled unless stated otherwise.
NOT SCREENED
Westward Gold (WG · CSE) — Toiyabe Hills (SSD Target), Nevada. Best result: 13.4 m of 6.55 g/t Au within 34.8 m of 2.84 g/t Au. Trench channel sampling, not drilling — outside the drill-results framework.
Eastport Critical Metals (EVI · TSX-V) — Matsitama (NAK-East), Botswana. Best intercept: 30.9 m of 1,039 ppm Cu from 141 m — 3.2 %·m, well below the Cu near-miss floor despite the 120 m headline width.
Targa Exploration (TEX · CSE) — El Zanjon, Santa Cruz, Argentina. Holes EZD0003–0008 returned only anomalous silver (2–14 ppm Ag) and detection-level gold.
Eastport Critical Metals (EVI · TSX-V) — Matsitama (NAK-East), Botswana. Best intercept: 30.9 m of 1,039 ppm Cu from 141 m — 3.2 %·m, well below the Cu near-miss floor despite the 120 m headline width.
Targa Exploration (TEX · CSE) — El Zanjon, Santa Cruz, Argentina. Holes EZD0003–0008 returned only anomalous silver (2–14 ppm Ag) and detection-level gold.
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.