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Alma Metals plans to soon begin a core-drilling program to upgrade and expand the copper-molybdenum resource at its flagship Briggs project that sits about 60km from the deep-water port of Gladstone in Queensland. In a vote of confidence for the project, newly-appointed contractor iDrilling will take $240,000 of its fees in Alma shares priced at 1.2c – a 33 per cent premium to the existing price.

Alma Metals has extended the higher-grade copper-molybdenum mineralisation strike at the Central Zone within its Briggs project in Queensland to about 500m, with new drill hits including 161m at 0.29 per cent copper and 71ppm moly from 22m. The intercept is part of a longer 242.4m zone beginning just 5.4m from surface and running 0.26 per cent copper and 60ppm moly.

Alma Metals has revealed a new 32.8m diamond drill hit of 0.78 per cent copper mineralisation across the contact between the granodiorite intrusion and enclosing volcanics at its Briggs project in Queensland. The hole tested the south-eastern margin of the Briggs Central resource zone and management says it further validates its concept of elevated copper grades in the near-surface zone straddling the two rock types.

Alma Metals has expanded the Briggs, Mannersley and Fig Tree Hill joint venture it shares with Canterbury Resources in central Queensland after grabbing two new exploration permits adjacent to the project. The JV ground includes the Briggs porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit that contains an inferred mineral resource of 415 million tonnes at 0.25 per cent copper and 31ppm molybdenum.

Alma Metals was up 70 per cent after tabling a resource upgrade at its Briggs copper project in Queensland that smashed through the million-tonne contained copper mark and added molybdenum for the first time to the tune of 28.6m pounds. Alma says Briggs has now clawed its way into the top 10 largest undeveloped copper plays in Australia in terms of contained metal.

A change in strategy appears to be close to paying dividends for Alma Metals after it read the global energy tea leaves and shifted from African coal to instead zero in on a big Queensland copper find. The $13.25 million market-capped company is bearing down on a shallow porphyry deposit at its Briggs copper project, 50km west of Gladstone in Central Queensland.

Multi-mineral explorer, PolarX is set to extend its Alaska Range Project with recently completed diamond drilling at the Caribou Dome Copper deposit hitting finely disseminated native copper in four drill holes. The vein-hosted mineralisation currently extends 1.1 kilometres and the discovery has potential to grow the existing resource at Alaska Range which comprises both the Caribou Dome and the Zackly deposit.

Diamond drilling by PolarX at its high-grade Caribou Dome copper prospect in Alaska has intercepted massive sulphides in the opening holes of its 1500m diamond drilling program. Several 2m - 11m thick zones of possible copper-bearing massive sulphides were logged in the first three drill holes of the drill program that is designed to test three new targets and provide fresh samples for metallurgical test work.

PolarX is making the most of the Alaskan summer and has already put a diamond drill rig on the ground at its high-grade Caribou Dome copper discovery north of Anchorage. The timely move into drilling has been prompted in part by the recent skyward move in the price of the lucrative red metal, which reached all-time highs of US$10,780 per tonne in early May.

ASX-listed base and precious metals explorer PolarX is aiming to get a drill rig into action soon at its Humboldt Range silver-gold project in Nevada, USA, after outlining several substantial, high-grade epithermal silver-gold anomalies at its Fourth of July claims. A major 3.5km-long anomaly has been identified grading up to 186g/t silver in the soils and with rock-chips going at more than 1,000g/t silver and 10g/t gold.

ASX-listed base and precious metals explorer PolarX is gearing up to kick off a new round of diamond drilling at the Caribou Dome copper project, about 250km north-east of Anchorage in Alaska, USA. The company says it has locked in a drilling contractor for the program that is planned to start in August this year with an aggregate drill coverage of at least 1,500m.

Rock chip samples from PolarX's Black Canyon claims in Nevada have given up some spectacular silver grades and impressive gold values. Some silver assays were above 1,000 grams/tonne, or more than 32 ounces to the tonne silver. The samples come from Nevada's Humboldt Range.

PolarX has expanded its ground holding in Nevada, pegging an additional 96 mining claims across the Fourth of July prospect area in the gold-rich Humboldt Range. The new leases provide the company with contiguous coverage along more than 6 kilometres of strike, taking in a host of historical mine workings which have returned assays of up to 15.28 grams per tonne gold and an incredible 2639.3 g/t silver.

PolarX has tabled a treasure trove of high-grade gold and silver results from the first-pass sampling program at its Humboldt Range project in the western United States, with several samples returning assays grading over an ounce to the tonne gold. They include assays of 37.7 grams per tonne gold, 31.2 g/t gold and a stunning 1590 g/t silver.

ASX-listed explorer, PolarX has struck a deal that gives it an exclusive option to acquire the historic Humboldt Range gold-silver project in north-western Nevada in the US nearby two producing mines. The Perth-based company says rock chip and grab samples taken at Humboldt Range between 2005 and 2009 maxed out at 3,384 grams per tonne gold and 2,836.6 g/t silver.

PolarX's drilling program over its Zackly East discovery in Alaska has extended the strike length of the prospect to more than 300 metres and continued to return anomalous intercepts including 1.5 metres at 5 grams per tonne, 3.15 per cent copper and 26 grams per tonne silver from only 11.6 metres down-hole.

PolarX has laid out a schedule for when the company expects to be receiving further copper and gold results from its Alaskan discovery at Zackly. It would appear that on top of the challenges posed by exploration in the wilds of the arctic, the current surge in exploration activity across the globe has caught many laboratories by surprise, with delays in reporting being experienced by most mining and exploration companies.

PolarX continues to grow its Zackly copper-gold discovery in Alaska with drilling outside the main resource area intersecting broad zones of gold-rich mineralisation including 24.5m at 1.24 g/t gold and 0.6 per cent copper which also hosts a higher-grade core of 11.2m at 2.45 g/t gold and 1.1 per cent copper from only 52.6m down-hole with further results expected in the coming weeks.

PolarX has set the date for two diamond drill rigs to arrive on site at its exciting Zackly East gold-copper prospect at its USA based Alaska Range project. Around 3,000 metres of diamond drilling is planned to follow up on previous broad, high-grade gold and copper hits including an impressive 55m intersection grading 2.8 grams per tonne gold and 0.6 per cent copper.

PolarX has its elephant gun firmly trained on the elephant sized mineral deposits in Alaska with the ASX listed company getting set to undertake follow up drilling of its extraordinary 55m long drill hit that showed 2.8 grams per tonne gold and 0.6% copper. Whilst the Zackly Main Skarn is already showing 213,000 ounces of gold, the real prize appears to be at Zackly East.

PolarX's suspicions that it might be sitting on a significant porphyry-style copper-gold-molybdenum mineralised system at its Alaska Range project in the US appear to have been confirmed by the first diamond assays returned from the Mars prospect. Whilst still early days, if this proves to be the case, the Perth-based company may one day find itself rubbing shoulders with some of the world's largest copper miners.

PolarX has hit it in one with a very long diamond hole drilled into an identified IP anomaly producing 400m of visible sulphides within porphyry-style mineralised vein sets and associated alteration at the Mars porphyry copper-gold target in central Alaska, USA. Previous surface sampling at Mars recorded anomalous gold, copper and molybdenum and the company is now eagerly awaiting assays to confirm the tenor of the mineralisation.

PolarX has unearthed visible sulphides within porphyry-style mineralised vein sets and associated hydrothermal alteration in the first 300 metres of a drill hole at its Mars porphyry copper/gold target in Alaska, USA. Previous surface geochemical sampling at Mars recorded anomalous gold, copper and molybdenum and the company is now eagerly awaiting assays to confirm the tenor of the porphyry-related mineralisation.

PolarX has delineated large chargeable anomalies using data from a recent geophysical survey and commenced diamond drilling at the Saturn porphyry copper-gold target within its Alaska Range project in the US. The company said that the data returned from Saturn is consistent with porphyry copper exploration models worldwide and shows potential prospectivity for disseminated sulphides and a quartz-veined stockwork ore system.

PolarX will shortly commence drilling at both its intriguing Saturn porphyry copper-gold target and Zackly copper-gold skarn deposit, located within its Alaska Range project in the US. The company has initiated geophysical surveys at Saturn to help determine the final drill hole positions and it is planning to start a resource extension drilling program at Zackly to grow the existing mineral resource.