The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Drills continue to tap wider gold zones at Indin Lake flagship North of 60 Mining News – April 1, 2020
The Indin Lake exploration camp is situated on the site of past mining at Colomac. In addition to extending the near-surface zone previously mined, Nighthawk has identified thicker zones of mineralization that extend for at least 3,500 meters.
Nighthawk Gold Corp. March 23 reported the final assay results from its 2019 drilling at the Indin Lake gold property, a 110-hole (40,834 meters) program that has a widening of gold mineralization at Colomac and is changing the way the exploration company views this main project on the property.
The 899-square-kilometer (222,200 acres) Indin Lake property hosts seven major project areas – Colomac, Leta Arm, Damoti Lake, Treasure Island, JPK, Fishhook and Echo-Indin.
Colomac is the flagship project at Indin Lake and the primary target for the drilling completed on this district-scale property during 2019.
According to a calculation completed mid-2018, Colomac hosts 50.31 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.62 grams per metric ton (2.6 million ounces) gold.
The 2019 drilling primarily focused on high-grade areas within a 3,000-meter central portion of the roughly 9,000-meter Colomac Main sill. (A sill is a tabular sheet intrusion, often horizontal, between older layers of sedimentary rock.)
Late last year, Nighthawk began recognizing that the gold mineralization in some of the Colomac zones is widening at depth. Further drill results began to show this deeper and thicker gold mineralization may extend for a least 3,500 meters, which could add significant ounces to this already robust gold project.
"Our 2019 drilling at Colomac has changed how we view the deposit," said Nighthawk Gold President and CEO Michael Byron. "The recent discovery of the sill's dramatic widening of its mineralized portion to depth of up to 3 times its near surface true width represents an incredible opportunity that may result in the exponential growth of tonnage and contained ounces."
This final batch of results continues to hit this wider zone at depth in Zone 2.0 and Zone 2.5 at Colomac.
Highlights from these holes include:
• 40.15 meters (15 meters true-width) of 1.22 g/t gold from a depth of 227.5 meters in hole C19-28C.
• 19.75 meters (14 meters true-width) of 1.25 g/t gold from a depth of 229.25 meters in C19-43.
• 28.5 meters (13 meters true-width) of 1.26 g/t gold from a depth of 246 meters in C19-45.
• 36.1 meters (28 meters true-width) of 1.86 g/t gold from a depth of 177.5 meters in C19-47.
Nighthawk said other areas of the Colomac sill drilled to greater depth also show a pronounced widening of gold mineralization at depth. The company believes this same wedge-shaped form extends into the largely unexplored Central Sill, providing an enticing new exploration opportunity.
"Drilling on the Colomac Main has continued to demonstrate a consistency in breadth and continuity of mineralization throughout all areas of the deposit," said Byron. "While the central 1-kilometer section of Colomac Main remains largely unexplored, with few holes below 250 meters vertical depth, our current holes have tested the sill well below previous intersections, successfully extending mineralization to new depths."
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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