Newfoundland VMS Explorer Rises 10% as First Hole Traces Potential Copper-Zinc Feeder Zone

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Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) explorers are drawing sharp market interest by successfully linking visible sulphide continuity directly to mapped feeder systems. In the current discovery-driven environment, investors are actively rewarding junior explorers that intercept thick, altered rhyolite packages hosting extensive copper and zinc mineralization, a classic geological signature that often points toward major accumulation zones.

Canstar Resources Inc. (TSX-Venture: ROX) advanced Wednesday after reporting visual logging results from the first diamond hole of its 2026 program at the flagship Mary March VMS project in the Buchans district. Hole MM-26-41, Canstar's first drilling at Mary March since 2019, intersected copper- and zinc-bearing stringer and disseminated sulphides over multiple wide intervals through 271 m of altered rhyolite to an interpreted mineralized basal contact at 710.6 m downhole, roughly 568 m vertical depth.

The strongest stringer development sits in the upper 118 m of the rhyolite, where pyrite stringers with visible sphalerite occur at less-than-one-metre spacing, while disseminated pyrite runs 3-5% in the lowermost 90 m. Importantly, the hole reached the rhyolite at 390.6 m downhole, within about 10 m of the depth predicted by the company's three-dimensional geological model; assays are pending and are expected in approximately eight weeks.

For reference, the Buchans mine, located 20 km west from Canstar’s project, produced 16.2 million tonnes grading 14.5% zinc, 7.6% lead, 1.33% copper, 126 g/t silver and 1.37 g/t gold from 1928 to 1984, and historic Mary March drilling outside the mine footprint includes 9.63 m of 10.1% Zn, 0.64% Cu, 1.8% Pb, 122 g/t Ag and 4.2 g/t Au in hole MM-294-7. An independent litho-geochemical study integrating 312 new whole-rock analyses concluded the Mary March volcanic succession may be a lateral stratigraphic equivalent of the Buchans succession. Drill hole MM-26-42 has begun approximately 100 m southwest of MM-26-41 to test another gap in the rhyolite map, with borehole electromagnetic surveying to follow.

ROX rose 10% to $0.055 following the news. The move follows the first feeder-zone intercept at Mary March while assays from MM-26-41 remain pending and MM-26-42 is underway.

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