Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits looks at notable drill hits recently reported to the ASX, led by FireFly Metals in Newfoundland, Azzuro Resources in Mongolia and Kingston Resources in NSW.
So, let’s dive in.
FIREFLY METALS (ASX:FFM)
Project: Green Bay copper-gold project, Newfoundland, Canada.
Hit: 42m at 6.1 per cent copper equivalent.
FireFly Metals has taken top billing in this week’s Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits after unveiling another batch of thick, high-grade copper-gold drill results from its Green Bay project in Newfoundland, Canada.
The company’s best new strike came from the existing Ming underground mining area, where drilling returned 42m at 6.1 per cent copper equivalent, comprising 4.7 per cent copper and 1.4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, including a high-grade core of 9.8m at 16.5 per cent copper equivalent, with 4g/t gold.
For a project already carrying a sizeable resource and sitting in a mining-friendly Canadian jurisdiction, that sort of copper-gold hit is more than just an eye-catching number. It adds weight to FireFly’s push to refine the high-grade core of Green Bay as the company works through resource modelling, mine planning and economic studies.
The latest results came from infill drilling designed to tighten confidence in the known mineralisation at the Ming mine, rather than from a blue-sky step-out into unknown territory. That matters because the company is trying to convert more of the resource into the higher-confidence categories needed to support development planning.
While the headline 42m intercept was the standout, it was not the only result with scale and grade. FireFly also reported 51.5m at 4.9 per cent copper equivalent, 50.2m at four per cent copper equivalent and 34.4m at five per cent copper equivalent from three separate holes in the same broader drilling push.
Those numbers point to a project where the company is not relying on a single spectacular hole to carry the story. Instead, Green Bay appears to be delivering a series of thick copper-gold intersections in the area where FireFly is most likely to need tonnes and grade to support any future mining plan.
Green Bay sits on the Baie Verte Peninsula in Newfoundland and centres on the historical Ming copper-gold mine. Since acquiring the project in October 2023, FireFly has focused on building the resource base, testing high-grade zones and laying the foundations for a potential restart.
In its previously reported 2025 resource update, the company put Green Bay’s measured and indicated resource at 50.4 million tonnes grading 2 per cent copper equivalent, including a higher-grade core of 8.8 million tonnes at 3.9 per cent copper equivalent. It also reported an inferred high-grade component of 10.9Mt at 3.8 per cent copper equivalent.
The most recent drilling results will be incorporated into an updated mid-year resource estimate.
The use of copper equivalent to amalgamate the figures means investors don’t need to keep an eye on the underlying metal mix, metallurgical assumptions and commodity price settings behind the headline grades. Notwithstanding the simplified reported widths and grades, FireFly’s latest drilling is an easy leader for a relatively thin week of ASX drill hits.
Copper remains one of the market’s favourite long-term metals because of its role in electrification, while gold credits add useful value in the current price environment. FireFly’s broader Green Bay system also carries silver and zinc credits, giving the company a multi-metal story around its copper-led resource base.
For FireFly, the latest assays appear to have arrived at the right point in its project cycle — not as an early exploration teaser, but potentially as useful feedstock for its more serious work of modelling, planning and development studies.
FireFly Metals’ underground drilling at the Ming Mine, part of the company’s Green Bay copper-gold project in Newfoundland. Credit: File.
AZZURO RESOURCES (ASX:AZ9)
Project: Red Hill copper-gold VMS project, Mongolia.
Hit: 21.45m at 1.70 per cent copper, 0.85g/t gold, 16.86g/t silver and 0.21 per cent zinc from 83.2m.
Azzuro Resources has shouldered its way into this week’s Big Hits line-up after delivering a high-grade copper-gold-silver-zinc intercept from the Red Hill project in south-western Mongolia.
The company’s standout result came from a diamond hole that returned 21.45m at 1.70 per cent copper, 0.85g/t gold, 16.86g/t silver and 0.21 per cent zinc from 83.2m. The hit included a convincing 8-metre section grading 3.27 per cent copper, 1.04g/t gold, 18.09g/t silver and 0.20 per cent zinc from 95m.
Below the main massive sulphide zone, the same hole also returned a broader 9.05-metre mineralised composite from 126.95m, including a narrow semi-massive sulphide vein of 0.45m at 2.67 per cent copper, 0.63g/t gold, 5.9g/t silver and 0.68 per cent zinc.
The numbers are notable because they come from a zone of high-grade copper-gold-zinc-silver massive sulphides, which Azzuro describes as part of a volcanogenic massive sulphide, or VMS, system. That style of deposit can host clusters of copper, gold, silver and zinc mineralisation, and the Red Hill result has a useful combination of grade, width and metal mix.
Importantly, the headline hole was not drilled as a random scout hole. It was designed to test an up-dip extension of massive sulphide mineralisation intersected in a previous hole and to intercept a downhole electromagnetic conductor modelled from earlier drilling.
The company says the latest assays confirm a significantly higher copper tenor than the equivalent intercept in last year’s due diligence hole.
Azzuro also picked up supporting mineralisation in another diamond hole, which returned 18.25m at 0.67 per cent copper, 0.16g/t gold and 0.15 per cent zinc from 68.75m, including 4m at 1.51 per cent copper and 0.34g/t gold from 78m. The same hole also delivered a separate shallow gold zone of 12m at 0.74g/t gold from 19m, including 3m at 1.58g/t gold from 27m.
Three short reverse-circulation holes tested the lateral continuity of near-surface oxide gold-silver mineralisation north of the VMS system. One returned 5m at 0.63g/t gold from 5m, while a second delivered 9m at 0.59g/t gold and 4.17g/t silver from surface.
Azzuro says the results support the potential continuity of a shallow gold zone over more than 600m of strike, although the grades are modest compared with the main copper-gold massive sulphide hit.
Red Hill, formerly known as Maikhan Uul, sits in south-western Mongolia and is being tested for a copper-gold VMS system with associated near-surface gold and silver. Azzuro says further assay results from the 2026 program are due in the coming weeks, while geological, drilling and geophysical datasets will be integrated to refine targets.
Azzuro’s result gives this week’s Big Hits a second copper-led story, but one sufficiently different from FireFly’s Canadian development-style infill drilling to hold its own.
Azzuro’s Red Hill strike is earlier-stage and more exploration-driven. Yet, the combination of high-grade copper, gold, silver and zinc in a massive sulphide setting makes it a clean and compelling addition to the Big Hits selection.
KINGSTON RESOURCES (ASX:KSN)
Project: Red Terror prospect, Mineral Hill operation, New South Wales.
Hit: 19m at 10.75g/t gold, 0.63 per cent copper and 8g/t silver from 41m.
Kingston Resources rounds out this week’s Big Hits trio with a shallow, high-grade gold-copper-silver intercept from its Red Terror prospect at the company’s Mineral Hill operation in New South Wales.
The headline result came from underground diamond drilling, with the lead hole returning 19m at 10.75g/t gold, 0.63 per cent copper and 8g/t silver from 41m. The broader interval included 8.55m at 23.80g/t gold, 0.91 per cent copper and 16g/t silver from 42.45m.
The same hole also returned a lower-grade but base-metal-rich zone of 9.6m at 0.20g/t gold, 1.14 per cent copper, 1.21 per cent lead and 14g/t silver from 66m, including 4.1m at 1.99 per cent copper, 2.75 per cent lead, 0.40g/t gold and 29g/t silver from 66m.
Kingston’s supporting holes add useful depth to the story. One up-dip extension hole returned 7m at 5.09g/t gold and 0.93 per cent copper from 40m, including 4m at 8.83g/t gold and 1.40 per cent copper from 43m.
Two deeper extension holes also returned mineralised intervals. One hit 3m at 1.67g/t gold and 1.62 per cent copper from 137m, including 2m at 2.49g/t gold and 1.99 per cent copper from 138m, while the other returned 15m at 1.19g/t gold and 0.60 per cent copper from 94m.
Kingston says the recent Red Terror holes targeted down-dip and along-strike extensions from the existing mineral resource and intersected mineralisation in both directions. The company says the work is helping model potential extensions to the north and at depth.
The latest results sit outside the current Red Terror resource envelope, which Kingston estimates at 214,000 tonnes grading 1.48 per cent copper and 1.07g/t gold. That gives the drilling greater significance than a simple repeat of known mineralisation, particularly given the lodes remain open at depth beneath historical stoping and current resource limits.
Red Terror sits within Kingston’s broader Mineral Hill gold and copper mine, where the company is working to grow resources and future throughput around an established processing centre. Mineral Hill can produce multiple concentrates and precious-metal doré, giving nearby resource growth a more immediate operational context.
The shallow starting depth is also helpful. A high-grade gold-copper-silver intercept beginning at 41m is easier to interpret than a deep technical hit, particularly when the included interval lifts the gold grade above 20g/t and still carries copper and silver credits.
That leaves Kingston with a stronger and more fully supported Big Hits case. FireFly offers the mature, high-grade Canadian copper-gold development angle, Azzuro brings an exploration-style Mongolian VMS hit and Kingston adds a shallow Australian precious and base metals result, backed by several extension holes around an existing mining centre.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Doug Bright
