Another rig is turning in Pershing County. Copper One Resources reported on October 23 that diamond core drilling has commenced at its 100%-owned Majuba Hill copper-silver-gold project in Nevada — an expanded Phase 2 program of up to 10,000 feet (3,048 metres), launched while assays from the completed Phase 1 program are still at the lab.
- Program size: up to 10,000 feet (3,048 metres) of HQ/PQ diamond core drilling, described as an expanded Phase 2 program testing priority targets.
- First tranche contracted: an initial approximately 5,000 feet (1,524 metres) with contractor Evolve Exploration Nevada, using one portable core rig running two shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Maximum planned hole depth under the initial scope is about 1,700 feet (518 metres); final collars, azimuths and depths are still to be set by the technical team.
- The objective: systematic testing to advance Majuba Hill toward a maiden mineral resource estimate under NI 43-101. More than 90,000 feet (27,432 metres) have been drilled at the project to date across more than 100 holes.
- Still waiting on Phase 1: assay results from the completed 2026 Phase 1 program remain pending and will be reported once received, reviewed and validated.
- The ground: about 9,684 acres (3,919 hectares), roughly 70 miles southwest of Winnemucca and 156 miles northeast of Reno, with year-round road access, power and water nearby. Majuba Hill is a past-producing copper mine with about 89,395 feet (27,248 metres) of historical drilling in its database.
What Phase 2 is testing
Majuba Hill hosts a large copper-silver-gold hydrothermal system that the company says remains open for expansion. Phase 2 is designed to keep testing the priority target zones defined by the company's geological model — mapping, geochemistry and structural interpretation alongside the drilling — rather than to define a resource in a single pass. One operational detail stands out: every Evolve rig runs on the contractor's EVX Connect platform, giving Copper One live drilling metrics and core photographs as holes progress, which the company says supports faster decisions in the field.
One figure in the release will draw eyes: a photograph caption notes chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite observed in a breccia zone in hole MHB-37B at about 1,982 feet (604 metres). That is a visual observation from core photography — see the honesty box below before reading anything into it.
The honesty box
There are no assay results in this release at all — not from Phase 2, which has just started, and not from Phase 1, which is still pending. The chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite in MHB-37B are a preliminary visual identification, and the company's own caption states it "should not be considered a substitute for laboratory assay results." There is no mineral resource and no mineral reserve at Majuba Hill yet — the maiden estimate is the goal of this work, not an existing fact — and the historical production and historical drilling figures describe past work, not current compliant resources. "Up to 10,000 feet" is a maximum program size, not a completed or guaranteed metreage, and the technical disclosure was reviewed by a Qualified Person the release itself identifies as non-independent.
What to watch
The Phase 1 assay release — the first hard numbers from the 2026 work — then Phase 2 progress updates and assays, and whether the accumulated drilling supports the maiden NI 43-101 resource the program is aimed at.