A copper explorer in Zambia has been waiting on a lab hit by power cuts and broken equipment. When the backlog finally started clearing, the deposit those samples came from turned out to be more than twice as wide at its northern end as the corridor drilled before. A biotech whose original shareholders now own less than 1% of it got its first FDA trial clearance under new ownership, and the world’s largest crypto exchange disclosed a $6.3 billion breach.
Mining & Minerals
Midnight Sun’s Dumbwa Copper Deposit More Than Doubles in Width
Midnight Sun Mining (TSXV: MMA, OTCQX: MDNGF) reported results from 76 drill holes totaling 17,373 meters at its Dumbwa copper deposit in Zambia on October 27. Drilling in the Northern Block has now traced near-surface copper mineralization across an east-west extent of more than 2,400 meters, which the company says is more than double the average width of the previously drilled Dumbwa Mineralized Corridor. Hole DBW-26-283 returned 31.1 meters grading 0.47% copper from 59.0 meters, including 16.0 meters at 0.81% copper, and hole DBW-26-355 in the Central Block returned 7.0 meters at 1.05% copper from 80.0 meters. The company estimates drill-indicated thicknesses at 85% to 100% of true width.
Those grades are modest. The width is what moved.
Results took this long because Intertek’s Kitwe lab has been dealing with higher regional sample volumes, power interruptions, and equipment failures, and roughly 5,000 samples from 70 holes are still outstanding. Midnight Sun sent 1,824 samples to Perth for priority analysis, with results targeted by October 30, and new pulverizers and a crusher at Kitwe are slated for commissioning on December 1.
Dumbwa still has no mineral resource estimate. The company’s published resource sits at its separate Kazhiba Main oxide deposit, a maiden Indicated resource of 2.33 million tonnes at 1.41% copper announced in January, with the supporting technical report filed on SEDAR+ in March. Zambia carries its own jurisdiction and operating risks, and this week’s release showed that even lab capacity can set the pace of a program there.
Cantex Hits 4 Meters of 29.45% Lead-Zinc at North Rackla, Yukon
Cantex Mine Development (TSXV: CD, OTCQB: CTXDF) released its first assays from the 2026 program at its North Rackla silver-lead-zinc-germanium project in the Yukon on October 29. Hole YKDD26-356 returned 14.00 meters grading 10.99% combined lead-zinc and 17.0 g/t silver from 218 meters downhole, including 4.00 meters at 29.45% lead-zinc and 44.3 g/t silver. All four holes drilled from pad MZ62N hit mineralization, and the Main Zone’s drill-confirmed strike length now stands at 2.67 kilometers, still open.
These are downhole lengths. The release does not estimate true widths, and it does not cite a mineral resource for North Rackla.
Only nine of the 31 holes drilled this season are back. Germanium values for the mineralized intervals haven’t been released, and neither have results from the 16 holes that tested three regional gold and base-metal anomalies. The company’s financial statements and technical disclosure are on SEDAR+.
Biotech & Life Sciences
Processa Gets FDA Clearance for a Phase 2 Trial of VT-7208
Processa Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: PCSA) said on October 29 that the FDA has cleared its investigational new drug application (IND), the filing that allows human trials to begin in the US, for a Phase 2 study of VT-7208 in chronic spontaneous urticaria, recurring hives with no identifiable external trigger. VT-7208 is an oral Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, a drug class that dampens a signaling pathway in immune cells. The planned trial is randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled, enrolling about 120 adults whose moderate-to-severe disease is not adequately controlled on antihistamines, over 12 weeks.
An IND clearance is permission to start a trial. Whether VT-7208 works in chronic hives is what the trial is for, and no start date has been given.
The Processa running this trial is not the Processa of a year ago. In July it acquired Vidya Therapeutics in a stock-for-stock deal alongside an approximately $200 million private placement, leaving pre-deal Processa shareholders with about 0.9% of the company on a fully diluted basis, former Vidya holders with about 46.0%, and placement investors with about 52.6%. Vidya founder Sheila Gujrathi was named Executive Chair in this week’s release, which also disclosed a research collaboration and exclusive option with Generian Pharmaceuticals on an oral FcRn antagonist program, with no financial terms given. The company expects its cash to fund operations into the second half of 2029.
Most of the new owners’ stake sits in Series A non-voting convertible preferred stock that cannot convert to common until shareholders approve it. The November 30 special meeting will vote only on a reverse stock split of between 1-for-3 and 1-for-9. The conversion vote comes at a later meeting, after Processa satisfies Nasdaq’s initial listing criteria, which include a $4.00 minimum share price.
Green Energy & Cleantech
Graphite One Lands a Defense Logistics Agency Award for Thermal Materials
Graphite One (TSXV: GPH, OTCQX: GPHOF), which is building toward a US supply chain for advanced graphite and battery anode materials, said October 26 that its US subsidiary received an award from the Defense Logistics Agency to develop and evaluate advanced carbon materials from its Graphite Creek deposit in Alaska for high-temperature defense thermal management. Idaho National Laboratory will partner on the technical evaluation, and the work runs through the company’s new Graphite One Advanced Systems division. The company says this is the third defense logistics development agreement it has received since 2023.
The award amount was not disclosed. For a company with no mine in production yet, that leaves the award as a signal of Pentagon interest and nothing anyone can put in a model.
Graphite Creek is the largest known graphite deposit in the US according to the US Geological Survey, and the company’s broader plan to mine, process, and recycle graphite domestically remains subject to project financing and permitting. The capital picture behind that plan is laid out in its SEDAR+ filings.
Crypto & Fintech: What Moved the Sector This Week
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, paused withdrawals late on October 29 after users reported funds draining from its wallets, then disclosed a security incident with an estimated impact of about $6.3 billion, roughly $3 billion of it frozen on-chain. The exchange said the breach may have started with a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop and later reported additional points of breach. Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs linked the attack to a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group. Binance pledged to cover all losses from company funds and began a phased resumption of withdrawals on November 1.
Bitcoin fell to a low near $76,000 on October 30 and traded around $77,500 on October 31. The same day as the low, US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $643 million in net outflows, the largest single-day withdrawal since June 25, led by BlackRock’s IBIT at $233.7 million. Macro offered no cushion: the Federal Reserve held rates at 3.75% to 4.00% on October 28, and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan said on October 30 that at least two more hikes may be needed.
Custody risk showed up further down the market cap ladder too. Datavault AI, a Nasdaq-listed company holding Bitcoin on its balance sheet, disclosed in an October 26 filing that it had been unable to withdraw its Bitcoin from the exchange Biconomy since June and would restate four sets of financial statements, and its shares roughly halved the next day. Beyond that, the week’s moves played out at the exchange, token, and ETF level, with no TSX or CSE-listed crypto equity news meeting this publication’s coverage bar.
What to Watch Next
Midnight Sun has not given a date. The nearer-term items are the roughly 5,000 samples from 70 holes still at labs, the Perth priority results targeted by October 30, and the Kitwe lab upgrades scheduled for December 1, alongside continued Phase 2 drilling in the Northern Block.
Germanium results for the mineralized Main Zone intervals are still pending, as are results from the 16 regional anomaly holes and the holes testing further strike extensions. Those are the next data points from the 2026 program.
Stockholders vote on a reverse split of 1-for-3 to 1-for-9 on November 30. Conversion needs a separate, later vote, after Processa meets Nasdaq’s initial listing criteria, including a $4.00 minimum price, and receives conditional approval of its listing application. A start date for the Phase 2 chronic hives study has not been announced.
The company has not disclosed one. Watch for scope or funding detail on the thermal management program and for progress on project financing for Graphite Creek and the wider supply chain plan.
Phased withdrawals began November 1. Fundstrat’s Sean Farrell told CNBC the key tell is how quickly withdrawals resume and whether outflows stay orderly, and the November 6 US jobs report could shift rate expectations heading toward the Fed’s December meeting.
Sources
- Midnight Sun’s Dumbwa Copper Deposit More Than Doubles in Width to Over 2.4 km in Northern Block, GlobeNewswire, October 27, 2026
- Midnight Sun Announces Resource Estimate for Kazhiba Main Copper Oxide Deposit, Stockwatch (GlobeNewswire), January 20, 2026
- Midnight Sun Files Technical Report for Kazhiba Main Copper Oxide Project, GlobeNewswire, March 9, 2026
- Cantex Reports Successful 2026 Drill Program With Initial Results at North Rackla, Investing News Network (CNW), October 29, 2026
- Cantex Reports Successful 2026 Drill Program With Initial Results at North Rackla, Mining Stock Education, October 29, 2026
- Processa Pharmaceuticals Announces Corporate and Pipeline Progress Following Acquisition of Vidya Therapeutics, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, SEC EDGAR, October 29, 2026
- Processa Pharmaceuticals Definitive Proxy Statement for November 30, 2026 Special Meeting, SEC EDGAR, October 2026
- Processa Pharmaceuticals Announces Acquisition of Vidya Therapeutics and Approximately $200 Million Concurrent Private Placement, BioSpace, July 29, 2026
- Graphite One Awarded Defense Logistics Agency Program to Evaluate Domestically Sourced Advanced Carbon Materials, PR Newswire, October 26, 2026
- DLA Backs Graphite One Thermal Research, Metal Tech News, October 26, 2026
- Binance Pauses Withdrawals as Hackers Suspected of Stealing Billions in Crypto, TechCrunch, October 29, 2026
- Binance Suffers Security Breach Affecting $6.3 Billion in Assets, Nearly $3 Billion Frozen, The Hacker News, October 2026
- Binance’s $6.3 Billion Hack: What We Know and What Comes Next, CNBC, October 30, 2026
- Binance Withdrawals Resume Following $6 Billion Hack, CNN, November 1, 2026
- Bitcoin Price Prediction for November 2026, Yahoo Finance, November 2026
- Bitcoin Price After a $643 Million ETF Outflow, CryptoTicker, October 31, 2026
- Bitcoin (BTC) Price Prediction: Can BTC Recover to $100,000 Before the End of 2026?, CoinCentral, November 1, 2026
- Bitcoin’s Recovery Faces Rising Derivatives Exposure and $643 Million in ETF Outflows, CryptoSlate, October 31, 2026
- Bitcoin Treasury Datavault AI Says It Can’t Access Its BTC, Stock Tanks, Decrypt, October 28, 2026
Editorial Disclosure
The Crypto & Fintech item in this article covers sector-wide activity; no specific company is the subject of coverage. Tickers discussed as company subjects in this article: MMA / MDNGF (Midnight Sun Mining), CD / CTXDF (Cantex Mine Development), GPH / GPHOF (Graphite One), and PCSA (Processa Pharmaceuticals). aktiego.com has received no compensation from any company, IR firm, or third party in connection with this coverage, and no aktiego.com staff member holds a position in any security named above. Press release dates and primary sources were verified against GlobeNewswire, Cision (CNW and PR Newswire), SEC EDGAR, and SEDAR+ where applicable. Midnight Sun Mining, Cantex Mine Development, and Graphite One are under $500 million USD in market capitalization as of the dates referenced above. Processa Pharmaceuticals’ roughly 2.8 million common shares outstanding carry a market capitalization in the single-digit millions; on an as-converted basis including the roughly 306.6 million common shares underlying its outstanding Series A preferred stock, its implied equity value is near or above $500 million USD at recent trading prices. NI 43-101 is the Canadian standard governing public disclosure of scientific and technical information on mineral projects. Midnight Sun’s reported intervals are drill-indicated thicknesses the company estimates at 85% to 100% of true width; Cantex’s intervals are downhole lengths with no true width estimate provided. Neither the Dumbwa deposit nor the North Rackla project has an NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate cited in the releases covered, and Midnight Sun’s published resource is at its separate Kazhiba Main deposit. Midnight Sun operates in Zambia and is exposed to jurisdiction and operating environment risk, including the laboratory delays described above. Midnight Sun, Cantex, and Graphite One are exploration- or development-stage companies with no production revenue. Graphite One has not disclosed the value of its Defense Logistics Agency award, and its domestic supply chain plan remains subject to project financing and permitting. VT-7208 is investigational and has not been approved by the FDA for any use; FDA clearance of an IND permits a clinical trial to proceed and is not a drug approval. Processa’s July acquisition of Vidya Therapeutics and concurrent private placement left pre-transaction Processa shareholders with approximately 0.9% of the company on a fully diluted basis; conversion of the Series A preferred stock into common stock requires a future stockholder vote, conditioned on Processa satisfying Nasdaq initial listing criteria, and a reverse stock split is proposed for the November 30 special meeting. Binance began a phased resumption of withdrawals on November 1 following the breach; the investigation is ongoing, and readers should verify the current status independently. These are speculative investments carrying significant risk including potential total loss of capital. Digital assets are highly volatile. Coverage on aktiego.com is provided for informational and educational purposes only, aktiego.com is not a registered investment advisor, and nothing in this article constitutes financial, investment, or professional advice. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. For more information please see our full DISCLAIMER.
