Excalibur Metals launches maiden drill program at Nye County Bellehelen site

Excalibur Metals has started a 3,000-meter reverse-circulation drill program at Spyglass Ridge, turning a long-overlooked corner of Nye County into a live exploration site again. The company said drilling began on the first of eight planned RC holes, a key step in its maiden program at the Bellehelen Project, about 70 kilometers east-southeast of Tonopah.

That matters beyond the geology. Bellehelen sits in the historic Bellehelen mining district, where silver and gold were first found around 1904 and where documented production is estimated at about 311,000 silver-equivalent ounces in the early 1900s. Excalibur says the district stretches more than 7 kilometers along historic workings and that gold-in-soil anomalies run for more than 1,300 meters, with a multi-element soil anomaly measuring more than 3 kilometers suggesting a larger system at depth.

The company is framing Bellehelen as a low-sulphidation epithermal silver-gold prospect in Nevada’s Walker Lane Trend, one that has not had a comprehensive modern exploration program since the 1980s. Its Phase 1 plan, announced in September 2025, included detailed mapping and sampling, a CSAMT geophysical survey, infill soil sampling, trenching and 2,500 meters of diamond drilling, with an estimated cost of about US$1.5 million. By April 2026, Excalibur said field crews had mobilized to the newly staked Rangefront target and site preparations were complete at Spyglass Ridge.

For Nye County, the near-term payoff is not a mine but activity: geologists, drill contractors, sample processing, equipment hauling and related service work that ripple into Tonopah and nearby communities. Excalibur also staked 58 additional federal lode claims covering about 1,198 acres across the west-northwest Bellehelen trend and Stone Cabin Valley pediment, showing it is still building out the land position while testing the ground. The company says it holds an option to buy 100% of the project.

The realistic timeline is longer than the market excitement that often follows a maiden drill program. Assay results, follow-up holes and a clearer geological model will determine whether Bellehelen becomes a larger exploration story or remains a promising historic district with good samples and no commercial breakthrough. If the results are strong, local residents should watch for more drilling, more contractor work and, later, the filings and permit steps that usually precede any serious development in a Nevada mining district.