Whats Inside This 840-Meter Copper-Gold Drill Hole? 365 Assays Are Pending

Gold and Copper Markets Hold Near Elevated Levels

Live spot pricing on August 10 at 6:32 a.m. EDT placed gold at US$4,355.65 per ounce, up US$6.18, or 0.14%. The same pricing data placed gold at US$140.04 per gram and US$140,037.40 per kilogram. The source noted that "Gold spot price can fluctuate by the second, driven by investment supply and demand, and other factors."

Copper also remained near elevated levels on August 10. Trading Economics reported copper futures below US$6.60 per pound after record levels the previous week, with its displayed price at US$6.5996 per pound and a one-year increase of 48.70%. The report said traders had taken profits while assessing global supply conditions and possible U.S. import tariffs. According to Trading Economics, those tariff concerns had "continued to redirect metal from international markets into US warehouses."

Trading Economics also reported softer Chinese copper imports. Imports of unwrought copper and copper products had fallen 11.5% year over year to 425,000 tonnes in July, while imports during the January through July period had declined 6.2% to 2.92 million tonnes. The report described copper as "one of the most widely used industrial metals in the world" and said it played a critical role in construction, electronics, power generation, and renewable energy systems.

An August 7 commodities report by Anna Radomska described gold as having reclaimed a declining technical channel and reached the upside target associated with an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern. The report identified the US$4,375 to US$4,381 area as a technical barrier at the time. Radomska wrote that "gold not only climbed back above the red declining channel, but also reached our previously discussed upside target based on the inverse head & shoulders pattern." The report also said momentum indicators had remained on the buyers' side, while identifying an invalidation of the breakout above the declining channel as a factor that could slow the move.

Kitco further reported that gold had gained nearly US$300 during the week as a series of weaker U.S. labor reports affected expectations for Federal Reserve monetary policy. Gold had moved above US$4,300 per ounce after the U.S. Labor Department reported that the economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, compared with economists' expectations for an increase of 85,000. Kitco's Weekly Gold Survey found that 16 of 19 participating analysts, or 84%, expected gold prices to rise, while 11% were bearish and 5% were neutral. Among 241 retail respondents, 68.9% expected higher prices, 15.4% anticipated lower prices, and 15.8% were neutral.

According to Kitco, Adrian Day, president of Adrian Day Asset Management, said the employment report had reduced pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise rates. "The US jobs report confirms a significantly weaker jobs market than recent headlines had suggested," Day said. "This significantly diminishes pressure on the Federal Reserve to hike rates, or at least, adds some pressure on the opposite side."

Kitco also reported that analysts continued to monitor inflation and the Federal Reserve following the week's nearly 8% increase in gold. Darin Newsom, senior market analyst at Barchart.com, pointed to central-bank purchases and increased investor participation as components of demand. "Central banks have been buying gold all along, giving it fundamental support; now we see some of the investment side," he said.

Outside Commentary Focused on Kuma Drilling and Pending Assays

In the May 28 edition of the What's Chen Buying? What's Chen Selling? newsletter, investor Chen Lin commented on Sankamap Metals Inc.'s ongoing drilling at the Kuma project in the Solomon Islands. Lin wrote, "SCU.cn, our little Sankamap, is close to a major discovery. I talked to the management, and they are very excited." He also addressed the status of the first hole, stating, "This is the first hole ever drilled in this concession. It looks like it is very close to the high-grade discovery." Lin described the initial drilling as encouraging and wrote, "Again, this is very encouraging; they are motivated to drill follow-on holes."

Jeff Clark and Daniel Flynn of the Paydirt Prospector provided additional commentary in an August 6 report, describing Sankamap's Kuma and Fauro properties and recommending the shares. They wrote, "Early work at Kuma and Fauro has already delivered the surface clues, historic grades, and geological green flags needed to justify a proper look." Their report identified Kuma as the immediate focus and noted its lithocap, copper-gold anomalies, geophysical targets, and historical surface samples. They stated, "Sankamap is now drilling to find out whether those surface clues connect to a real system underneath."

The August 6 report also included an assessment from geologist Sharyn Alexander. Regarding Kuma, Alexander wrote, "The appeal is scale." She said the company was targeting a porphyry copper-gold system beneath a lithocap extending more than two kilometers along strike and cited advanced argillic alteration, anomalous surface copper and gold, and geophysical features interpreted as prospective targets. Alexander also stated that early drilling had shown "evidence of a strong hydrothermal system, including clay alteration, anhydrite veining, pyrite mineralization, and other features that are consistent with the upper levels of a porphyry-related environment."

Alexander separately addressed Fauro, where she said historical drilling had outlined near-surface epithermal gold systems that were being followed up through systematic sampling and target refinement. She characterized the two projects' respective exploration stages by writing, "Kuma is testing whether alteration and structure translate into grade at a still-unproven porphyry target, while Fauro is about confirming and extending mineralization that's already been drilled." She added, "Pending assays will be the next real data point worth watching."

Clark and Flynn issued a "BUY FIRST TRANCHE NOW" recommendation for Sankamap in their August 6 report. They cited a CA$23.5 million market capitalization and wrote, "We recommend buying a first tranche now, before the first Kuma assays and before the wider market fully wakes up to the scale of the opportunity." The third-party sources did not disclose a formal target price.

Assays, Continued Kuma Drilling and Fauro Program Ahead

Drilling at Kuma was expected to continue throughout the third quarter, with assay results to be released as they were received, validated, and interpreted. The first pending results covered 365 samples from the initial 559 meters of KU26-001. Assays from targeted surface sampling completed during the planned drilling pause were also pending.

The fully funded Kuma program was designed to total 2,000 to 3,000 meters and systematically test multiple high-priority targets across the project's two-kilometer-long lithocap. The program was designed to test and delineate both near-surface and deeper mineralization while providing the first systematic evaluation of the property's copper-gold potential.

At Fauro, systematic exploration and target-generation work were already underway. The property covered approximately 24,100 hectares, or 241 square kilometers. The exploration work was focused on advancing targets ahead of a planned 2,000-meter to 3,000-meter drill program in the fourth quarter of 2026.

At the Meriguna target, historical drill intercepts included up to 115 meters at 0.89 g/t gold, including 35 meters at 2.08 g/t gold and one meter at 44.45 g/t gold. Soil anomalies above 100 parts per billion gold covered an area of approximately 100 meters by 500 meters over a magnetic high. Drilling remained open at depth and along strike, while a western magnetic high flanked by elevated chargeability had been identified as a copper-gold porphyry target that had not been drill tested.

At the Ballyorlo and Kiovakase targets, historical drilling included intercepts of up to six meters at 1.52 g/t gold. Copper-in-soil anomalies above 500 parts per million covered approximately 500 meters by 300 meters over a magnetic high. At Kiovakase, elevated gold-in-soil anomalies extended over approximately 1,000 meters, with rock chip samples returning up to 161 g/t and 169 g/t gold.

The company's 2025 Kiovakase sampling also returned rock assays of up to 19.25 g/t gold, with all sampling averaging 6.53 g/t gold, along with rock samples containing up to 4% copper. Elevated epithermal pathfinder elements, including silver, arsenic, lead, and zinc, were also present in the assays.