Vizsla Copper Hits 266m at 1% Copper With 3.32% High-Grade Core

Vizsla Copper drilled 266.0 metres grading nearly 1% copper at its Deerhorn deposit in central British Columbia, and buried inside that intercept sits a 48.5-metre zone running 3.32% copper. Numbers like those do not surface in a routine exploration update.

The result, released on 26 August 2026, arrived weeks before a second, entirely separate move: the staking of the Miller copper-gold project, ground that now flanks both sides of Centerra Gold’s producing Mount Milligan mine. Two signals, one company, within a single month. Connecting them is a 40,000-metre drilling campaign spanning two countries.

Both developments point to a company placing multiple bets at once. What follows here is worth stating plainly for anyone tracking copper exploration upside: the Deerhorn intercept is the first disclosure from a much larger dataset still in the lab, and there is a defined stack of pending assays and a 2027 drill program sitting ahead of you.

The Deerhorn intercept and what it means for the Woodjam system

Hole DH26-136 returned 266.0 metres at 0.97% copper, 0.06 g/t gold and 4.29 g/t silver from 306.0 metres downhole. That width alone would make a decent headline. The grade pattern inside it is what changes the conversation.

Within that broad intercept, the assays reported 107.7 metres at 2.01% copper from 320.5 metres, and nested tighter still, 48.5 metres at 3.32% copper. The copper does not average down across the length of the hole. It concentrates.

The standout figure: 48.5 metres at 3.32% copper, a high-grade core sitting inside a much wider mineralised zone.

Vizsla Copper describes this as the longest high-grade copper intersection drilled to date at Woodjam, based on its review of historical and current drilling records. That nested structure is why. A single wide interval at moderate grade can be a statistical average of good and poor rock. A nested sequence, where grade climbs as you move toward the centre, reads differently.

What this tells you is that geologists are not simply tallying metres. They are interpreting the pattern as evidence of a higher-grade core within the broader Woodjam porphyry system, potentially in ground earlier resource estimates never captured. That reframes the scale question for the whole deposit.

Higher-grade core targeting within broad porphyry envelopes is an active theme across multiple 2026 exploration programs, with drillers at several projects using wide low-grade intercepts to triangulate toward tighter, economically significant zones.

Treat this as a beginning rather than a conclusion. DH26-136 was one of three holes drilled at Deerhorn in 2026; assays for DH26-134 and DH26-137 remain pending, as do results from eight further holes at the Three Firs and Great Plains targets. Those results will either support the core interpretation or complicate it.

Miller project: staking both sides of Mount Milligan

The geological logic behind Miller comes before any paperwork. Vizsla Copper now holds ground contiguous with both the West and East flanks of Centerra Gold’s Mount Milligan project, a producing porphyry copper-gold mine. Major porphyry systems tend to occur in clusters, and flanking an operating mine on two sides is a bet that mineralisation trends run past the existing property boundary.

Major porphyry copper deposits tend to cluster along geological corridors, which is why the presence of a producing mine like Mount Milligan is treated as a meaningful proximity signal rather than coincidence.

The project itself covers 25,274 hectares in central British Columbia, roughly 140-145 kilometres north of Prince George, split across two contiguous claim blocks.

Both Woodjam and Miller sit inside a British Columbia critical minerals sector that has attracted growing institutional interest in 2025-2026, partly because the province combines geological prospectivity with a comparatively stable permitting environment.

The acquisition and next steps

The mechanics were about as low-cost as they come. Vizsla Copper acquired Miller on 23 September 2026 through staking under British Columbia’s Mineral Titles Online system.

• Size: 25,274 hectares
• Location: central BC, 140-145 km north of Prince George
• Structure: two contiguous claim blocks, West and East
• Ownership: 100% owned, royalty-free, no cash or shares issued
• Next step: airborne MobileMT survey scheduled to commence within weeks of the announcement

The read here is straightforward: entry cost was negligible, so the risk is almost entirely geological. Adjacency creates a compelling conceptual case, but proves nothing about Miller’s own mineralisation until the survey and, eventually, drilling deliver results.

What Mount Milligan’s reserve base tells us about the district

Mount Milligan gives the district its scale context. The Vizsla Copper release cites the mine’s proven and probable reserve of 470 million tonnes grading 0.28 g/t gold and 0.17% copper. In full-year 2025, Centerra Gold reported 147,581 ounces of gold and 50.5 million pounds of copper from the operation.

Those figures describe the neighbour, not Miller. The value in flanking that reserve on both sides is the structural argument: porphyry-related trends feeding a 470-million-tonne orebody may extend onto Vizsla Copper’s claims. Whether they do is a question only the airborne survey and drill bit can answer.

Running 40,000 metres across three projects at once

The 40,000-metre figure is easy to read past as background. It is better understood as a deliberate strategic choice, and a demanding one to execute.

The 2026 campaign spans Woodjam in British Columbia plus the Poplar and Palmer projects in Alaska. At Woodjam, the summer program ran 11 holes totalling 6,055 metres across three targets: Deerhorn, Three Firs and Great Plains. In Alaska, two drill rigs were operating at each of Poplar and Palmer as of the 26 August 2026 update, pursuing priority copper targets.

• Woodjam (BC): two rigs, 11 holes for 6,055 m completed, Deerhorn result released, remaining assays pending
• Poplar (Alaska): two rigs, drilling ongoing, no 2026 assays disclosed yet
• Palmer (Alaska): two rigs, drilling ongoing, no 2026 assays disclosed yet

Four rigs across two countries, and most of the results still sitting in the laboratory. That matters for how you interpret what has been released.

It means the information flow from this program will be staggered over months rather than delivered in one hit. The Deerhorn intercept is the first data point from a far larger dataset still being processed, not a summary of the campaign. Ahead lies a follow-up program at Deerhorn, planned for 2027, to test the high-grade mineralisation extensions this result has flagged.

What the next 12 months will tell investors about these assets

Everything announced in September 2026 is contingent on data that has not yet arrived. The distance between here and a substantiated thesis is a defined sequence of catalysts.

1. Remaining 2026 Woodjam assays: Deerhorn holes DH26-134 and DH26-137, plus eight holes at Three Firs and Great Plains. These test whether the higher-grade core interpretation holds beyond a single hole.
2. Miller MobileMT survey results: the first independent geological read on whether Mount Milligan’s structural trends extend onto Vizsla Copper’s ground.
3. Alaska 2026 results: assays from Poplar and Palmer, where four rigs have been turning without disclosed grades.
4. 2027 Deerhorn follow-up drilling: designed to chase the high-grade extensions flagged by DH26-136.

Most anticipated catalyst: the 2027 follow-up drilling at Deerhorn, targeting extensions of the highest-grade zone drilled at Woodjam to date.

The risks deserve equal billing. A single high-grade intercept does not define economic viability; resource estimation and economic studies are years of work away. Adjacency to Mount Milligan is a conceptual argument, not proof of what Miller hosts. And running four rigs across two countries carries genuine operational complexity.

Copper supply economics set the backdrop against which any exploration result is ultimately measured; a high-grade core like Deerhorn’s matters more in a market where new large-scale deposits are taking longer to discover and develop.

For investors watching copper exploration upside, the next 12 months are the window in which the Deerhorn interpretation and Miller’s geological merit get tested against actual data, or stay speculative. Knowing which results to watch is how you separate signal from noise.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with financial professionals before making investment decisions. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and exploration results are subject to geological uncertainty and various risk factors. Forward-looking statements regarding planned drilling and surveys are speculative and subject to change based on operational and market developments.