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News Provided by US Metal News on behalf of Yukon Metals Corp.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- US Metal News News Commentary - Major gold producers, including Agnico Eagle and Newmont, just reported record quarterly free cash flow, with realized prices above US$4,400 per ounce in the second quarter. For the producers, the question is where the next ounces come from. One answer lies at the exploration stage where early drilling can test potential new discoveries at a relatively low cost.. On Oct. 1, Yukon Metals Corp. (CSE: YMC, FSE: E770, OTCQB: YMMCF) reported its first 2026 assay results from the Birch copper-gold project in Yukon. Companies in the producer backdrop include Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE: AEM), Newmont Corporation (NYSE: NEM), Kinross Gold Corporation (NYSE: KGC) and Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX).
What Yukon Metals Reported
BR26-007 was collared approximately 200 metres east along strike from BR25-003, the easternmost hole of the 2025 program, to test whether the skarn-bearing stratigraphy continued. The company says the hole intersected multiple mineralized horizons in its upper 65 metres. The first, 7.5 metres grading 0.16 g/t gold, 0.04% copper and 1.78 g/t silver from 7.0 metres, sits near the top of the hole. The main interval follows from 39.5 metres: 23.5 metres grading 0.48 g/t gold, 0.11% copper and 1.47 g/t silver.
Inside that interval, 13.5 metres graded 0.71 g/t gold, 0.17% copper and 1.78 g/t silver from 49.5 metres. That includes 1.3 metres grading 4.05 g/t gold, 0.15% copper and 2.45 g/t silver in marble and limestone with chloritized skarn, and 4.2 metres grading 0.82 g/t gold, 0.45% copper and 4.37 g/t silver from 58.8 metres in strongly chlorite-altered skarn with pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite. The company reports copper equivalent grades of 0.58% for the 23.5-metre interval, 0.87% for the 13.5-metre interval and 4.02% for the 1.3-metre interval.
At depth, the hole returned 0.8 metres grading 12.1 g/t gold and 2.84 g/t silver from 261.0 metres within an altered schist-skarn sequence next to a logged fault zone. The company says that association, together with sulphide-bearing veinlets in the surrounding rock, suggests structural controls may also influence mineralization. Higher gold and copper grades in the upper hole correlate with more intense skarn alteration and more sulphide, including logged chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite, and the hole cut numerous porphyritic intermediate intrusive dykes, including immediately above the main shallow package.
"We are pleased that BR26-007 has extended the drilled footprint at Birch to approximately 1 kilometre in length, demonstrating that near-surface skarn gold and copper mineralization continues east along strike," said Jim Coates, CEO of Yukon Metals. "The shallow skarn horizons remain our focus, while the deeper high-grade gold interval, intrusive relationships and mapped intrusion to the south provide additional vectors as we interpret the full 2026 dataset and plan follow-up work."
Reading the Numbers Carefully
The headline interval is modest in grade and wide in length, which is the typical profile of a near-surface skarn system, while the 12.1 g/t gold interval is high in grade and only 0.8 metres long. Both facts belong in the same sentence. The company has not determined true widths, and it has not defined a mineral resource at Birch.
Copper equivalent figures also depend on assumptions. The company calculated them using US$4.00 per pound copper, US$3,000 per ounce gold and US$40 per ounce silver, with assumed recoveries of 92% for copper, 80% for gold and 60% for silver based on a review of comparable projects. No metallurgical test work has been completed at Birch. For context, the producers discussed below reported realized gold prices of US$4,414 to US$4,487 per ounce in the second quarter, above the gold price in the company's copper equivalent formula. That is a comparison of assumptions, not a statement about project economics, which have not been studied.
Birch in Context
Birch is a 7,000-hectare, 100%-owned property in western Yukon, approximately 65 kilometres northeast of Burwash Landing, accessed by helicopter. The company's 2025 program tested a gold-copper soil anomaly measuring 1.4 kilometres long and up to 400 metres wide and confirmed a mineralized skarn system in interlayered schist and marble cut by multiple phases of intrusive dykes. BR25-003 intersected 47.4 metres grading 0.43 g/t gold from 26.6 metres, and BR26-007 now extends mineralized skarn a further 200 metres east.
The 2026 program included approximately 2,600 metres of diamond drilling in six holes, 12.7 line-kilometres of induced polarization surveying, and mapping and prospecting around an intrusive body approximately 2 kilometres south of the drill area. On Sept. 15 the company reported new IP targets 2 kilometres south of the Birch skarn discovery. In June it closed a C$13 million financing. Results from the remaining 2026 holes will be released as assays are received and pass the company's QA/QC procedures. Samples were analyzed by SGS Canada Inc. in Burnaby, British Columbia, with control samples making up approximately 10% of submissions.
The Producer Backdrop
Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE: AEM) reported on July 29 second quarter payable gold production of 855,816 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of US$1,459 per ounce and a realized gold price of US$4,483 per ounce. Record quarterly free cash flow reached US$1,335 million, or US$2.66 per share, and the company returned US$625 million to shareholders. It raised full-year capital expenditure guidance to US$2.6 billion to US$2.8 billion, citing construction approval at Hope Bay, and said production is expected near the lower end of its 3.3 million to 3.5 million ounce range because of rock mass movement in the Barnat pit at Canadian Malartic.
Newmont Corporation (NYSE: NEM) reported on July 23 attributable gold production of 1.3 million ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of US$1,621 per ounce and a realized price of US$4,414 per ounce. Record free cash flow was US$2.2 billion, the company held US$9.0 billion in cash, and it said it remains on track to meet full-year guidance of 5.3 million ounces.
Kinross Gold Corporation (NYSE: KGC) reported on July 29 production of 492,326 attributable gold equivalent ounces at an attributable all-in sustaining cost of US$1,821 per ounce and a realized price of US$4,487 per ounce. Attributable free cash flow was US$726.8 million, cash and equivalents were US$2.7 billion with US$1.9 billion in net cash, and the company repurchased US$230 million of shares in the quarter. It said it remains on track for its 2026 production guidance of 2.0 million attributable gold equivalent ounces.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) gives the copper-gold view. For the second quarter it reported net income of US$984 million, copper sales of 710 million pounds and gold sales of 123 thousand ounces, with consolidated unit net cash costs of US$1.97 per pound of copper and operating cash flow of US$2.048 billion, per its second quarter results. Its full-year 2026 outlook is approximately 3.1 billion pounds of copper and 650 thousand ounces of gold, and results continued to reflect idle facility costs of US$284 million tied to the September 2025 mud rush incident at its Indonesian operations.
The scale gap is the point of including them. These are producers with operating mines, reserves and billions of dollars in cash flow. Yukon Metals is an exploration company with a single hole of new assays and no defined resource, and its results are not comparable to theirs in any financial sense.
What to Watch Next
The company's own next steps are the assays from the remaining 2026 holes, interpretation of the full drilling, IP, mapping and prospecting dataset, and follow-up work around the deeper gold interval, the intrusive relationships and the intrusion mapped to the south. The company has not said when remaining results will arrive beyond releasing them as assays are received and validated.
Investors should weigh these results in context. This is a single hole in an early-stage exploration program, and the headline grades are modest. Reported intervals are downhole lengths and true widths are not yet known. The highest-grade interval is 0.8 metres long. No mineral resource has been defined, no metallurgical work has been done, and, like all exploration companies, Yukon Metals depends on continued access to capital to advance drilling.