The playbook — copper · October 21, 2026
A thick copper-gold hit at Kwanika, and the market noticed
NorthWest cuts 110 metres of 1.86% copper-equivalent in the Western Zone — infill meant to firm up the deposit, not grow it.
NorthWest Copper drilled a fat hole at its Kwanika project in British Columbia and reported it on October 21. Hole K-26-346 cut 110.0 metres grading 1.86% copper-equivalent — that is a blended value combining copper, gold and other metals — starting 378 metres below surface. Inside that run sits a richer 16.1-metre slice at 4.37% copper-equivalent. The company also states a true width of 84.3 metres, meaning the drill crossed the zone close to square-on rather than at a shallow angle that would stretch the number. Two other holes on the same cross-section, K-26-259 and K-26-264, returned 115.1 metres at 1.19% and 50.9 metres at 1.19% respectively.
Here is the right lens. Kwanika is a bulk-tonnage porphyry — a big low-grade body you measure by tonnes times grade, not by one spectacular sliver. So the useful math is the gram-metre: hole 346 works out to roughly 157 units of copper-equivalent on true width, a genuinely thick, well-mineralized result. All three holes are infill — drilling between existing holes to tighten the spacing to about 50 metres, the density needed to upgrade rock into the “Indicated” confidence category. So the win is de-risking continuity, not adding size. There are two bonus zones, one above and one below the known units, that hint at more. Worth noting too: copper alone is only 0.64% in the best hole, so gold carries much of that headline number, and the equivalent figure leans on a high price deck. Over three months the stock rose 8.3% while copper itself barely moved (+0.6%) and the copper-equity peer index slipped to -0.6% — a clear mid-period spike to $0.40 before pulling back.
Now the honest limits. This is three holes on a single cross-section, and only 14 of 43 holes have been reported, so the program-wide picture is incomplete. The cut-off grade is not stated. The gram-metre upgrade to 346 extends one unit about 25 metres up-dip, between roughly 372 and 480 metres down — but this is infill, not a step-out, and the release gives no strike extension. What to watch: assays from the remaining 29 holes, timing not stated, and an updated Preliminary Economic Assessment for Kwanika-Stardust, also with no date given.