PolarX finds a second copper front as Alaska drilling strengthens Nevada gold story

High-grade copper reshapes Caribou Dome

PolarX Limited (ASX:PXX) has put its Alaska copper project at the centre of a stronger exploration story after drilling delivered 24.8 metres at 9.8% copper and 14.5 grams per tonne silver from just 2.4 metres at Caribou Dome. The interval included 4.9 metres at 13.6% copper and 4.4 metres at 14.1% copper, while a second hole returned 22.6 metres at 8.1% copper.

The company says the new holes twinned historical drilling from the 1960s and returned materially higher assays than the older holes, raising the possibility that historical sampling understated the deposit’s grade. That is an interpretation to be tested rather than a revised resource: PolarX’s Caribou Dome Mineral Resource Estimate remained unchanged at 7.2 million tonnes grading 3.1% copper and 6.5g/t silver at 30 June 2026.

Drilling also pushed the known mineralised system to roughly 500 metres from surface. The deepest result was only 0.3 metres at 3.5% copper and 4g/t silver from 453.7 metres, so it demonstrates continuity at depth rather than establishing a mineable zone. Further drilling will be needed to determine whether broader, economically meaningful mineralisation exists at those depths.

Western sulphides offer upside, but assays are pending

The more speculative part of the Alaska story sits to the west of the established Caribou Dome mineralisation. Holes CD26-009 and CD26-013 intersected visual massive, semi-massive sulphides and hydrothermal breccia, including a 57.5-metre visual sulphide interval in CD26-009 and a combined 35.4 metres across several zones in CD26-013.

Those observations point to a new structural target, but they are not assay results. PolarX specifically cautions that the fine-grained sulphides make visual identification of copper minerals difficult and that visual abundance is not a substitute for laboratory analysis. Assays were expected in October 2026, making their release the clearest near-term test of whether the western extension adds grade and scale or merely geological intrigue.

Northern Star funding reduces Alaska’s immediate burden

Northern Star Resources has contributed US$6 million under the Alaska Range Joint Venture, lifting its interest from 15% to 30%. The staged agreement allows Northern Star to earn up to 70% through total contributions of as much as US$39 million, subject to the agreed expenditure schedule. The arrangement has funded the Alaska exploration campaign while allowing PolarX to direct its own capital towards Nevada.

That support is visible in the balance sheet. Cash rose to A$9.96 million at 30 June 2026 from A$2.86 million a year earlier, while exploration and evaluation assets increased to A$45.04 million. PolarX still recorded a A$3.69 million loss, used A$1.82 million in operating cash and spent A$8.76 million on investing activities, including exploration.

Nevada supplies a second discovery pathway

At the 100%-owned Humboldt Range Project in Nevada, drilling at the Ridgeline prospect produced a different kind of result: broad epithermal gold zones alongside a high-grade core. Hole SP25-005 returned 9.1 metres at 6.38g/t gold, including 1.5 metres at 37.29g/t, as well as a separate 22.9-metre interval at 1.16g/t gold. Ten of 13 holes intersected wide gold mineralisation, while all 13 encountered broader silver mineralisation.

The results came from an initial 2,027-metre programme over part of a 3.6-kilometre structural anomaly. The mineralised trends remain open along strike and at depth, although the currently drilled vertical extent is approximately 100 metres. PolarX plans a major step-out programme to test the untested portions of Ridgeline rather than presenting the early drilling as a resource or reserve.

FY2027 will have to convert intersections into resources

PolarX’s next milestones are unusually concrete for an exploration company: re-assaying historical Caribou Dome pulps, updating the copper resource, drilling the western sulphide extensions, testing strike extensions at the Zackly skarn and expanding Ridgeline. The Stellar project is also awaiting results from a 2026 airborne mobile magneto-telluric survey intended to refine 2027 drill targets.

The financial report provides the necessary counterweight to the exploration enthusiasm. PolarX has no operating revenue, says it may need further capital to complete its programmes and warns that an inability to raise funds could affect its ability to continue as a going concern. The company says its current cash, Northern Star’s staged funding and the ability to slow exploration support the going-concern basis. The investment case therefore turns on whether the next assays and resource updates can justify the capital still required to move from promising intersections to an economic development story.