Mining Explorers 2016: Nighthawk Gold Corp.

Nighthawk Gold Corp. continued to advance exploration at its 200,000-acre Indin Lake gold property with a 8,390-meter drill program looking to add higher grade near surface gold to the project's resource.

Located roughly 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, the Indin Lake property hosts a number of gold deposits, including the historical Colomac open-pit mine, which produced 527,908 ounces of gold during the 1990s.

In 2013, Nighthawk reported an inferred mineral resource estimate of 39.8 million metric tons averaging 1.64 grams per metric ton (2.1 million ounces) gold. Roughly 2 million ounces of this gold resource is found at Colomac and Goldcrest, parallel trends of dikes and sills. With three smaller and slightly lower grade deposits across the larger Indin Lake property accounting for the balance.

Late in 2013, the company completed an option agreement to acquire four mining leases adjacent to the Indin Lake property that encompass two additional gold deposits - Kim and Cass.

Colomac Main, where the historical mining took place, is part of a roughly 6,000-meter long north-south trend of prospective area that has been divided into six zones.

More than half of this year's drill program targeted Colomac.

Drilling within Colomac Zone 1.5 followed up on 52.5 meters of 7.78 g/t gold cut in hole C14-06 and 32.95 meters of 4.19 g/t gold in hole C15-04B. Highlights from 2016 drilling at Zone 1.5 include: 52.07 meters (40 meters true width) of 7.72 grams per metric ton gold in hole C16-03; 31.45 meters (25 meters true width) of 4.14 g/t gold in hole C16-01; and 39.6 meters (32 meters true width) of 2.38 g/t gold in hole C16-01B. Nighthawk said drilling continues to reinforce the growth potential of Zone 1.5.

"We are extremely encouraged with our drilling at Colomac's Zone 1.5. We have not only proven that distinct higher grade domains clearly exist at Colomac, but that they can be sizable bodies of relatively predictable geometry and great continuity," said Nighthawk President and CEO Michael Byron.

Drilling also targeted other zones at Colomac and Goldcrest, a parallel trend about 250 meters west of Colomac.

-SHANE LASLEY