Some strong gold, antimony, silver and copper hits have been returned from the Blue Dick, Kentucky, Stantz, Buster East and Reliance prospects.

And there’s still a lot of ground left to explore, so the story isn’t over yet for Mammoth Minerals (ASX:M79).

The immediate focus is Blue Dick, which is shaping as one of the standout spots.

Sampling concentrated on extensions and parallel trends to the historical Blue Dick mine returned results such as 1,219g/t Ag, 1.85% Sb and 0.88g/t Au, as well as 1,134g/t Ag, 1.90% Sb, 0.72g/t Au and 2.7% Cu, with plenty of strike length still under investigation.

The company also pulled a 10.3% copper sample from one historic working and said what they were seeing in the field across the trend pointed to both carbonate replacement and epithermal mineralisation.

Mammoth has also mapped out three separate parallel trends at Kentucky, running from 166m up to 1,500m long.

Standout rock chips include 5,580g/t Ag, better than 1% Sb, 2.46g/t Au and 1.95% Cu plus gold hits of 97.3g/t, 57g/t and 46.8g/t.

At Stantz, a 1,300m trend has been mapped with a bunch of old shafts and adits, and samples have returned up to 839g/t Ag, 0.48g/t Au, 11.1% lead and 1.25% Cu.

Buster East has added more gold excitement, with sampling 1.4km east of Buster drilling returning up to 28.7g/t Au and 159g/t Ag.

Reliance rounds out the list, with rock chips grading up to 45.5g/t Au, 126g/t Ag and 1.3% Cu from a cluster of old workings.

Instead of relying on just one prospect, Mammoth has several target zones with real grade at surface and enough strike to hint that Excelsior could turn into a bigger district play.

That matters because markets usually care more about having a pipeline of targets than just one-off rock chip hits.

The critical minerals angle is another big plus.

The US is working fast to secure the minerals it needs for things like EVs, solar, chips, AI and defence as relying on China for supply is seen as a big risk.

This has led to more support for local and friendly projects, with things like IRA incentives, Defence Production Act help, stockpiling and new funding options.

If Mammoth can show it’s got a real critical minerals project, it could be entering a market with US government policy support and backing.

M79 managing director Glenn Poole said the presence of antimony, silver and copper alongside the gold was particularly noteworthy.

“Extensive historical shafts, underground development and prospecting pits are evident throughout the project, with a myriad of mineralisation styles,” he said.

“The program has already confirmed six priority target areas with highly compelling surface sampling results, with the potential for further prospects to be defined, given that significant areas of the claim block are yet to be assessed.”

Mammoth said Blue Dick, Stantz and Kentucky were already top of the list for more mapping, sampling and drill permitting. Buster and the new Imperial target are also in the drill plan.

That means the company has a solid pipeline of news coming up.

If these targets keep delivering as more work is done, Excelsior could start looking less like an early-stage play and more like a target-rich Nevada discovery with exposure to gold and critical minerals.