Torr Metals expands 2026 drilling with Lodi-Kirby porphyry target – Richard Mills

2026.03.26

Torr Metals (TSXV:TMET) announced on March 25 that the drill-permitted Lodi and Kirby zones are a compelling secondary drill target for the 2026 exploration program, based on newly integrated interpretations of geological, geochemical and geophysical datasets.

Torr believes the Lodi-Kirby area represents a highly prospective copper-gold porphyry cluster system, with the potential to host multiple preserved mineralized intrusive centers, including the Lodi and Kirby occurrences, at shallow to moderate depths beneath a broader interpreted hydrothermal footprint measuring approximately 24.5 square kilometers.

The Lodi-Kirby zones provide a strong complement to the company’s primary focus at the Bertha Zone, where Phase 1 drilling completed in late 2025 delivered strong vectoring toward high-priority target areas where potential source porphyry intrusions are interpreted to be located. Lodi-Kirby is within the company’s Kolos Copper-Gold Project in southern British Columbia.

“Lodi-Kirby has rapidly advanced as a compelling drill target and adds meaningful momentum to our 2026 exploration program,” Torr Metals’ CEO Malcolm Dorsey stated in the news release. “With strong vectoring already established at Bertha, the addition of Lodi-Kirby strengthens our pipeline of high-quality targets and potentially increases our chances of success in Phase 2 drilling. Importantly, Torr is fully funded for up to 6,000 metres of drilling within the drill-permitted Bertha and Lodi-Kirby zones, positioning us to efficiently advance both targets this season. Together, these targets highlight the growing scale and discovery potential of the Kolos Project and positions the Company for an active and results-driven exploration season.”

The company’s current interpretation indicates that Lodi-Kirby exhibits several characteristics commonly associated with concealed porphyry Cu-Au systems, including:

• Large magnetic anomaly with a central zone of magnetic destruction (Figure 1) with rock grabs assays around the margins returning up to 0.52% Cu and 4.24 g/t Au.

• A coincident conductive core indicative of sulfide-bearing hydrothermal alteration as evidenced by Cu-Au mineralization hosted in exposed biotite-phase (potassic alteration) diorite intrusions at Kirby, located on the margins of the interpreted core.

• Surrounding polymetallic geochemical footprint of silver-molybdenum-tellurium-bismuth, together with lead-zinc, consistent with the interpreted inner and outer alteration shells respectively.
  
• Mineralized brecciated volcanic sequence at Lodi suggests proximity to a causative porphyry system, vectoring towards a mineralized core at depth.

• Alteration zonation from propylitic to phyllic with increasing quartz–carbonate veining toward the interpreted high conductivity core.

2023 soil samples displaying pathfinder elements for the interpreted proximal, inner and outer shells of a large-scale cluster porphyry system including the Lodi, Kirby, and Ace targets; overlying newly inverted 2023 ZTEM TMI geophysics.

Bertha Zone

Torr Metalsis poised to drill 6,000 meters at two drill targets: Bertha and Lodi-Kirby. The priority is Bertha.

An initial 2,733-meter drill program at Bertha successfully confirmed the presence of a large, structurally-controlled hydrothermal copper-gold-silver system and, importantly, defined coherent geological and geophysical vectors toward a high-priority, untested copper–gold target to the northeast.

Drilling delineated broad zones of anomalous copper mineralization spatially associated with hydrothermal magnetite, brecciation, and strong northwest-striking and north-south trending structural controls.

These zones are flanked by 68 discrete native copper occurrences that locally define higher-grade intervals and are closely associated with hydrothermal magnetite-epidote veining, collectively defining a laterally extensive hydrothermal copper system spanning greater than 350m in strike and 580m vertical depth.

According to Dorsey, this year’s field program started with geophysics to test the expansion potential to the northeast of the Bertha Zone where Torr focused its initial drilling. That drilling confirmed Bertha as the peripheral expression of a large alkalic porphyry system with a very extensive supergene-style mineralization alteration within it.

“It also defined those drawn vectors going towards the northeast, so we need to expand on that with IP, see where it leads us. And then at the same time we’ll run that IP to get deeper penetration at the “new” Bertha North target,” he told me in January. 

“We need to see what the geometry of the underlying chargeability anomaly is, and that will set the stage for our phase two drill program, so we’ll follow the IP with drilling and altogether I would say this produces basically two high-quality shots on two vectored porphyry systems.”

Sonic Zone

In early February Torr announced that results from a geochemical program completed in late 2025 from the undrilled Sonic Zone have nearly doubled the anomalous footprint from 4.5 square kilometers to about 8 square kilometers.

A total of 1,572 samples were collected from Sonic, located adjacent to Highway 5.

Torr expands Sonic copper-gold soil anomaly to ~8 km² — Richard Mills

The program successfully confirmed historically reported grades, returning up to 3,090 parts per million (ppm) copper and 420 parts per billion (ppb) gold.

According to the company, the results outline a large, structurally controlled mineralized corridor measuring 4.6 km in length and up to 1.7 km in width. 

“These results underscore the scale and upside exploration potential of the Sonic Zone as a large, undrilled copper-gold system,” Dorsey said in the Feb. 3 news release. “Nearly doubling the anomalous soil footprint to approximately 8.0 km² is a major step forward and materially reinforces Sonic as a high-priority target within the Kolos Project. With excellent access, permitting underway, and an induced polarization (IP) geophysical survey planned in 2026 to refine drill targets, we are advancing Sonic toward drill readiness; while maintaining our near-term focus on our fully funded Phase II drill program of up to 6,000 metres, beginning with follow-up drilling at our Bertha and Bertha North targets located 9.5 km to the west.”

Kolos Copper-Gold Project 

The 332-square-kilometer Kolos Copper-Gold Project contains Nicola Belt geology along trend and with similar attributes to alkaline and calc-alkaline copper ± gold ± molybdenum porphyry mines at Copper Mountain, Highland Valley and New Afton.

The project is adjacent to Highway 5, the Coquihalla Highway, with year-round access and operation potential via forestry service roads and substantial infrastructure provided by the city of Merritt located 23 km to the south.

Kolos lies within the Quesnel Terrane, a prolific porphyry belt in British Columbia that is host to major deposits and long-lived mines that within the region largely consist of Late Triassic calc-alkaline and alkaline intrusions, including Highland Valley (30 km northwest), New Afton (30 km north), and Copper Mountain (106 km south) deposits.

Regional exploration occurred from the 1960’s through to the late 1980’s as a result of the porphyry copper-molybdenum discoveries at Highland Valley. There have been at least 10 operators within the Kolos Project area since the 1960’s that defined six significant copper and gold occurrences: Ace, Kirby, Lodi, Rea, Helmer and Clapperton. Intermittent historical work at these occurrences includes rock and soil geochemical sampling, trenching, and EM geophysical surveys. 

Through its own exploration, Torr has vectored four copper-gold porphyry targets: Bertha, Sonic, Lodi and Kirby — with surface geochemical anomalies covering a combined 15.5 square kilometers. All except Sonic are permitted for drilling.

Conclusion

Torr Metals sees clear vectoring from Phase 1 drilling toward higher-priority targets at Kolos. The technical setup involves exposure to both higher-grade copper and gold vectors (Bertha NE/Bertha North +/- Kirby) and district-scale porphyry potential.

With $3.8 million in working capital, there are multiple “shots on goal,” with Phase 2 drilling predicated on new, untested target signatures based on what TMET learned from Phase 1.

Near-term catalysts start with a field program from the beginning of April with expanded IP at Bertha to refine targets.

In the second quarter up to 6,000 meters of drilling is planned. Initial holes are expected to test newly refined targets at Bertha, followed by priority targets at Bertha North, Bertha NE Extension pending IP, +/- Kirby-Lodi, and Bertha targets directly vectored from Phase 1 drilling.

Torr Metals is anticipating starting field operations, for what will be a very busy year for the company, in early April. Shareholders can expect ongoing news flow throughout 2026 from geophysics and drilling.

Torr Metals
TSXV:TMET
2026.03.25 Share Price: Cdn$0.10
Shares Outstanding: 31.8m
Market Cap: Cdn$8.3m
TMET website 

Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com

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Richard does not own shares of Torr Metals (TSXV:TMET). TMET is a paid advertiser on his site aheadoftheherd.com This article is issued on behalf of TMET