Talon logs teens-percent nickel over 46 metres at Tamarack's Vault Zone

Talon Metals drilled a hole into the Vault Zone at its Tamarack project in central Minnesota and hit 46.43 metres of massive sulphide — solid metal-bearing rock — grading 13.37% nickel, 16.54% copper, plus cobalt, platinum, palladium and gold all in the same interval. Inside that run sits a richer 26.22-metre core at 14.95% nickel and 17.85% copper. To put the scale in plain terms: most nickel drill hits come in under 2% nickel, so grades in the teens of percent over that length are the kind of number that headlines the sector. The stock has responded — up 78.2% over three months to C$9.96, a re-rating from around C$5 to nearly C$10.

Why it lands as more than a lucky poke: this hole sits about 50 metres from the Vault Zone discovery hole, which returned 34.9 metres of similar-grade material. Two high-grade hits, roughly a football field apart, start to look like a zone rather than an accident. The polymetallic stacking — nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum, palladium and gold together — adds value per tonne. Running it is CEO Darby Stacey, who managed Eagle Mine, the United States’ only primary nickel mine, under Lundin Mining from 2020 to 2025, though this is his first turn as a public-company chief. Rio Tinto holds 49% of the Tamarack joint venture; Talon holds 51% with a path to 60%. Meanwhile the base-metals peer index (XBM) rose just 3.3% over the same stretch — nickel the commodity gave no tailwind, so the market is pricing something specific to this company.

Now the honest part. The 46.43 metres is core length, not true width — the company says the zone’s irregular shape prevents a consistent true-width figure, so the actual thickness of rock could be less. This is one drill hole; continuity across the Vault Zone is still early and guided by borehole surveys. The eye-catching “equivalent” grades lean on assumed metal prices and recovery factors, so read the individual metals, not the equivalents. No cut-off grade or compositing rule was disclosed. Watch for more step-out holes from the three active rigs, further sampling of a thin footwall platinum-palladium zone below the main hit, and a Tamarack feasibility study targeted for the second half of 2026. President Mike Kicis stepped down effective August 1, 2026, with Stacey absorbing his duties and no successor named.

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