Skip to content

Our Flagship

The Hercules Project

Hercules Project

Overview

The Hercules Project: Positioned to Operate

The Hercules Project is host to America’s newest copper porphyry belt, as well as the Leviathan discovery, one of the largest new porphyry copper discoveries in the U.S.

LOCATION      Cambridge, Idaho
OWNERSHIP
  • 100% owned through US subsidiary
  • NSR buyable down to 1% for $1M CAD
  • NSR on Olympus Claims (white hashed lines) buyable down to 0.25% for $7.5M USD
MINERAL RIGHTS
  • ~100,000 acres of private, state and federal mineral rights
SURFACE MINING RIGHTS
  • ~1,800 acres with surface mining rights (black outline)
  • ~7,700 acre state lease to explore, develop and mine
ACCESS
  • 2.5 hours from Boise Intl. Airport
  • State highway through Property
  • Road access to all drilling sites
POWER
  • Prime position for power supply. <6 miles from 3 Hydroelectric dams, supplying 1,200 MW of clean electricity directly across the Property through three 260 kV transmission lines (see map).
  • Hercules would be the first major consumer along the line, reducing transmission loss.
  • Highly competitive industrial rates, among the lowest cost in America @ ~$0.10/kWh

The Hercules Project is part of a larger, 73 km copper belt, known as the Olympus Belt, which came under Hercules’ control through a strategic option agreement with Barrick Mining Corp. in July, 2025. With a greatly expanded >100,000-acre land position, the Company is now targeting more new discoveries, using the latest modern geophysical technologies.

Idaho was ranked 21st in the world for investment attractiveness, based on mineral endowments and public policy factors such as mining regulation, taxation and political support.

Fraser Institute’s Annual
Survey of Mining Companies,
2024

Last Mined
1882
Last Explored
1920
Acquired
1980

Highlights

Ownership

Located in Idaho with surface mining rights; 100%-owned project with no permitting challenges.

Significant Copper Discovery

In late 2023, Hercules intersected 185m of 0.84% Copper, 111 ppm Molybdenum, and 2.6 g/t Silver, including 45m of 1.94% Copper.

Belt-Scale Land Package

Hercules has strategic control of America’s newest porphyry copper belt, holding over 73 km (+100,000 acres) of highly prospective exploration claims.

Systematic Exploration with Modern Technology

Hercules’ team is employing a mix of proprietary knowledge of the local geology as well as utilizing geophysical tools such as MT and IP.

The Company is currently conducting a methodical, systematic definition drilling program at Leviathan, as well as exploration drilling to identify additional porphyry centres across the belt.

History

Before the discovery of the Leviathan copper porphyry in late 2023, Hercules was primarily a silver project. The district had been mined and explored for high grade silver since the 1800s, with the most extensive drilling activity happening between 1965 and 1988. At that time, over 300 holes were drilled, targeting widespread silver mineralization within a specific host rock known as the Hercules Rhyolite. The Hercules Rhyolite can be traced for over 70km south-southwest into Oregon, but a younger volcanic event around 16 Ma covered more than 95% of the rhyolite, presenting significant challenges for exploration at the time.

The Company purchased 100% of the Hercules project in 2021 and began using modern systematic exploration to look deeper than ever before. That approach led to a major porphyry copper discovery in 2023 which has shifted the project’s focus dramatically. The initial discovery was made at depth, below strong silver mineralization on the west side of the Property. Additional drilling has now demonstrated mineralization to occur at progressively shallower depths toward the east, where the overlying cover eventually pinches out entirely, exposing a large, untested copper, molybdenum and gold soil anomaly which spans for kilometres.

Hercules’ Evolution

Timeline

1880 – 1920
Historical production at the Belmont Zone and other old silver mines
Late 1970s – Early 1980s: 300+ Drill Holes
Strong silver prices and aggressive drilling defines broad zones of silver in the Jurassic Hercules Rhyolite
1983 – 1984: Silver Price Collapse
Silver price collapses; project is orphaned in the late 1980s
2021: Hercules Metals Acquires Project
2022: Greenfields Exploration Campaign
Compiled and digitized historical data, modelled historical silver mineralization

Soil and rock chip sampling, mapping, SWIR analysis

Drone magnetic survey, 6-line 3D IP survey over historical silver mineralization

9-hole shallow RC drill program for silver
2023: Maiden Drilling Program
First exploration drilling program in 40 years
2023: Blind Discovery of Leviathan Porphyry
2023: ~$25 Million investment from Barrick Mining Corp.
2024: Follow-up Drilling on Porphyry Discovery
2025: Developed Breakthrough 3D Model
Development of first 3D geological model of concealed Leviathan Porphyry

Model quickly validated by 2025 drilling program

Exploration evolves from testing anomalies and conceptual targets to:
    • Defining grade and width along a 1.3-km strike
    • Extending the system by stepping out in both directions (NE and S), which could potentially extend strike length upwards of 3.5 to 4 km
2025: Acquired 73km of Claims Across Belt
Transformative option agreement with Barrick to increase claim package to over 100k acres

Current

Exploration

Guided by a breakthrough 3D geological model developed in 2025, Hercules Metals has been systematically and methodically drill testing the Leviathan porphyry discovery.

Hercules’ 2025 drilling campaign was originally planned to be 12,000 metres. Given the early success of the program in validating the Company’s new breakthrough 3D geological model, drilling was upsized to go beyond 12,000 metres to reach the maximum production possible prior to winter shutdown. The Company also ramped up from 2 drill rigs to 5 drill rigs in May 2025, and is focused on a targeted approach of:
  1. Definition drilling along an initial 1.3 km of modelled strike.
  2. Large step-outs to the south where MT geophysics suggest upwards of 5 km of potential strike length.
  3. Targeting increasing high-grade hypogene enrichment.
Results from the 2025 campaign to date have been encouraging.
  • Drill hole HER-25-02, the first completed drill hole of 2025 showed strong evidence of thicker hypogene enrichment.
    • A 220m step-out NE of HER-24-12, drill hole HER-25-02 intersected high-grade mineralization grading 1.5% Cu and 8.9 g/t Ag over 81m, within a larger interval of 127m of 1.1% Cu and 7.0 g/t Ag, all within a broad 346m intercept of 0.66% Cu, 3.2 g/t Ag, and 78 ppm Mo. (see full news release here)
  • Definition drilling from drill holes HER-25-05 and HER-25-03 added near-surface mineralization (~110m true depth) to the hanging zone. (see full news release here)
    • Drill hole HER-25-05 intersected long intervals grading 0.6% Cu and 1.8 g/t Ag over 273m, within 379m of 0.5% Cu, 75 ppm Mo, and 1.8 g/t Ag, which also included 35m of 1.01% Cu and 6.2 g/t Ag.
  • The 2025 drilling campaign is expected to continue into early December, weather permitting, with systematic drilling occurring across 200m-spaced fences as the Company works toward initiating the first maiden resource estimate for Leviathan.
In the summer of 2025, the Company completed a large-scale (>100 square km) magnetotelluric and natural-source induced polarization (“MT-NSIP”) geophysical survey over the Hercules Property. Survey Highlights
  • Expanded Coverage: Applying a proven discovery method at Leviathan to a district-scale (120 km2) land package.
  • Superior Depth: MT can reliably model conductivity, Leviathan’s strongest geophysical property, to depths of up to 6 km.
  • Phase I results reveal a remarkable correlation with Leviathan’s southeast dipping copper mineralization.
Identification of Significant “Donut” Anomaly The 2025 MT survey revealed a major porphyry-style anomaly along trend with Leviathan. Stronger, broader, and significantly more vertically extensive than Leviathan, the “Donut” Anomaly is Hercules’ most prospective geological target identified to date, and could potentially be an additional large porphyry centre. The anomaly aligns remarkably well with copper mineralization drilled along 1.3 km of strike length to date, extended south several km beyond the current limit of drilling, increasing in both size and strength under the Southern Flats Zone, where the Company holds surface mining rights. The anomaly has a 3 km-wide ring of very high conductivity (<100 ohm-m) surrounding a moderately conductive (100-200 ohm-m) core – a classical geophysical “donut” pattern seen in porphyry copper systems. The Company is currently drill testing the Donut Anomaly with step-out drilling of an initial 2-to-3-hole fence across the anomaly. (See full news release here)
Using the data from Hercules’ 2024 drilling campaign, the Company produced a breakthrough 3D geological model of the Property, which has guided the Company to drilling success in 2025.
  • The new 2025 geological model reveals southeast dipping geometry of concealed porphyry system for the first time
  • A walkthrough video of the Company’s initial 3D model published in April 2025 is available here
  • New northwest-oriented drilling orientation, perpendicular to the system, has increased the hit rate of strong porphyry mineralization

The summer 2024 Phase III program consisted of over 12,000m of drilling, starting west of the 2023 discovery area, and testing new magnetic anomalies and conductivity and chargeability anomalies identified by the 2023 deep-seeking 3D IP survey.

  • The phase III drill program focused on multiple targets focusing on the Leviathan porphyry coper system, including:
    • Large step-out drilling defined a 1.2km x 1.6km mineralized zone with potential for multiple porphyry centers
    • Shallow Porphyry Mineralization to the Southeast: Recent drilling has intersected early biotite alteration with mineralization beginning as shallow as 72 meters true depth, indicating potential for near-surface porphyry mineralization.
    • Grade Creek Zone Increasing Grades to the North with first recorded increase in mineralization at depth, outside of the late Porphyry, where a large untested chargeability and magnetic anomaly presents a compelling target for a vertically extensive early porphyry center.
    • New Hydrothermal Breccia: The discovery of a magmatic-hydrothermal breccia pipe represents a new target type with vertically extensive potential.
  • Multiple untested chargeability targets remain with only 20% of the target area tested to date with the system remaining open in all directions – 6 multi-km scale targets identified for further drilling.
  • Metallurgical Testing: Initial metallurgical testing confirmed that the mineralized material from the Leviathan porphyry copper system is amenable to conventional processing techniques, with copper recoveries exceeding ± 87% using standard flotation methods, with ongoing locked cycle testing now projected to recover ± 90%. Additionally, A straightforward two-step leaching process on the near-surface silver delivered impressive recoveries of 86% for oxide mineralization and 82% for sulfide mineralization.

The 2023 property-wide deep-seeking IP survey was designed to explore the new Leviathan Porphyry at depth. The new survey expanded on the initial chargeability anomaly first tested last year and revealed trends that are comparable with known porphyry copper systems.

The deep-seeking 3D IP, direct current resistivity and drone magnetic geophysics over the area to be drill tested in 2024, revealed multiple prospective targets, coincident with the direction of increasing copper porphyry grades seen in the initial 2023 deep discovery holes drilled at the Leviathan Porphyry.

  • Conductivity anomaly below historical mining at the Belmont Zone
  • Kilometers of prospective chargeability from Belmont to Grade Creek
  • Moderate chargeability anomaly near surface at the Big Cut Skarn provides an additional satellite drill target
  • 3D magnetic inversion reveals magnetic highs potentially associated with a potassic core.
  • Soil sampling, mapping, and prospecting planned to cover extensions of newly identified geophysical targets

The summer 2023 Phase II drill program consisted of step-out holes designed to test for extensions of historical mineralization, verify previous historical drilling and test a series of new targets generated by greenfields exploration.

The 6,000 m program focused on the following targets:

  • Hercules Adit and Frogpond Zones: Step-out holes aiming to extend mineralization, as well as infill and further verify historical drilling results.
  • Hercules Rhyolite: Robust silver targets identified through surface mapping, geophysics and geochemistry, including at the Hinge, Haystack and Belmont Zones.
  • New porphyry copper-silver (+/- gold) target: Interpreted as the center of a large zoned system and feeder for the surrounding silver (+/-lead-zinc) hosted in the Hercules Rhyolite.
  • Large-scale untested chargeability anomaly at depth, potentially representing a large body of strong sulfide mineralization.

Five deep drill holes encountered strong phyllic alteration, which is typical of the margins of a porphyry system, over approximately 450m x 500m, called the Leviathan Porphyry. HER-23-05, the first hole to test a large-scale (>1.8km) blind chargeability anomaly, intersected 185.29m of 0.84% Cu and 111 ppm Mo from 246m to 431.2m, including 45.33m of 1.94% Cu. 

Additional step-out holes drilled at various orientations to the southeast of HER-23-05, where chargeability data was currently available, intersected similar alteration, veining and copper mineralization over variable lengths. Many directions remain to be tested, and the potassic center, which often carries the highest grades within porphyry systems, remains to be found. 

The 2022 3D IP survey over the Hercules Adit, Frogpond and Belmont Zones, identified a large untested chargeability anomaly at depth. The results demonstrated the excellent exploration potential at Hercules and contributed to 2023 drilling.

  • Strong chargeability values (>25ms), below historical drilling, and over a continuous strike length of 1.8 kilometers
  • Anomaly is coincident with the untested base of the Hercules Rhyolite where surface mapping indicates the strongest silver mineralization to occur (See Oct 18 NR)
  • Lower portion of anomaly lies down dip of the copper mineralization hosted within the underlying Seven Devils volcanics
  • Anomaly remains open up-dip to the southeast

The November 2022 Phase I drill program was designed to test and verify historical drilling assays as well as gain the geological and geotechnical information needed to support a Phase II drilling campaign in early spring of 2023. 

The program consisted of infill and step-out holes at the Frogpond and Hercules Adit Zones with additional step-out holes to test open zones with little to no prior drilling. 

A total of 1,995 feet in 9 drill holes was completed, with several holes bottoming in mineralization, and high-priority areas were tested within the Frogpond and Hercules Adit Zones for potential inclusion in future resource estimates. (See Feb 28 NR).

Highlights of the program include: 

  • Strong grade over multiple significant intervals, including drill hole HER-22-01, the first hole of the program, which intercepted 38 meters of 353 g/t Ag, 0.64% Pb, 2.28% Zn and 0.16% Cu (487 g/t AgEq), beginning at a shallow depth of 26 m depth in first drill hole, HER-22-01.
  • HER-22-01 included a higher-grade intercept of 4.57 m grading 791 g/t Ag, 1.25% Pb, 4.06% Zn and 0.18% Cu (1,021 g/t AgEq) starting at 29 m.
  • HER-22-07 intersected 44.2 m grading 224 g/t Ag, 0.32% Pb, 0.38% Zn and 0.09% Cu (258 g/t AgEq) starting at 1.5 m.
  • Drilling grades significantly exceed grades sampled at surface, supporting the concept of potential supergene enrichment of mineralization below surface.
  • Confirmed the presence of a high-grade shoot (the P-19 Shoot) at the east end of the Frogpond Zone; open at depth to the east.
  • Confirmed the presence of shallow, high-grade mineralization at Frogpond and Hercules Adit Zones, with additional follow-up planned for Phase II.

Historical

Drilling

Please check out our News page for full summaries and visuals of the Company’s drilling results.

You can also view photos of the Company’s core here.

Subscribe toour newsletter!

Stay on top of Hercules’ progress by signing up for our newsletter.