The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Seeks further expansion with a drill program to begin soon North of 60 Mining News – March 5, 2021
Visible gold encountered in a wide zone of mineralization at the Colomac deposit on Nighthawk's Indin Lake property.
Nighthawk Gold Corp. March 1 reported significant increases to all resource categories at its Indin Lake gold property in Northwest Territories.
According to the latest calculation, Indin Lake hosts 38.7 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 1.81 grams per metric ton (2.25 million ounces) gold, a 35% increase over the 2020 resource estimate, and 11.5 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 2.13 g/t (790,000 oz) gold, a 60% increase over last year.
The indicated resource includes 17.9 metric tons averaging 1.62 g/t (930,000 oz) gold in the proposed open-pit mine area at Colomac, the most advanced project on the 899-square-kilometer (347 square miles) Indin Lake property.
Nighthawk completed 22,993 meters of drilling during its 2020 program at Indin Lake –16,419 meters of drilling at Colomac and the balance exploring the Leta Arm and Treasure Island regional targets.
Due to the slow assay turnaround times, the updated resource estimate only included results from 67% of this drilling. This calculation, however, did benefit from increased gold price assumptions.
"Following a comparison of our peers and current economic conditions, we have adjusted the economic parameters from our previous 2020 MRE (mineral resource estimate) and included the assayed 2020 drill holes, many of which have returned excellent results," said Nighthawk Gold President and CEO Keyvan Salehi. "We are particularly excited with the 71% increase in indicated pit constrained resources in the 2021 MRE."
The company is also looking forward to testing other resource expansion targets with a drill program slated to get underway by the end of this month.
With the goal of substantially expanding the Indin Lake gold resource over the next two years, Nighthawk has refined its near-term exploration objectives. With a focus on near-surface mineralization, this exploration plan has three main objectives: resource expansion opportunities; greenfield exploration around the main Colomac deposit; and assessing known exploration targets to validate their probability of adding to the resource base.
Within the Colomac project area – the Colomac, Goldcrest, Grizzly Bear, 24 and 27 deposits – the company plans to complete considerable drilling, testing targets that show potential to increase the near-surface pit constrained resources.
Kim & Cass, which lies about 15 kilometers (nine miles) southwest of Colomac, is one of the outlying areas that Nighthawk is particularly excited about exploring further this year.
Cass hosts 2.9 million metric tons of historical resource averaging 2.66 g/t (245,311 oz) gold. Drilling carried out by Nighthawk in 2014 extended the gold mineralized corridor at Cass by 700 meters, where it remains open along strike and to depth. The 2021 program is expected to dedicate considerable efforts to validate the historical data and continue to extend the resources along strike.
Nighthawk has identified eight additional high priority but earlier staged near-surface gold targets across the wider Indin Lake property:
• Laurie Lake – A target at the western end of the Treasure Island-Laurie Lake mineralized corridor, where surface grab samples collected in 2018 returned up to 22 g/t gold.
• JPK – A high-grade, near-surface banded iron formation and sulfide rich sediment target that lies within the eastern end of the Treasure Island - Laurie Lake Mineralized Corridor, where 2011 surface samples returned up to 12.1 g/t gold.
• Colomac South – Located at the southern end of the 2,000-meter-long Colomac project area, this target has never been drilled. The 2021 program will test the potential folding of favorable mafic sills based on identified geophysical signature.
• Grizzly Bear North – This year's drilling here will test for a link between Grizzly Bear and Goldcrest.
• 24/27 South – The southern extension of the 24 and 27 mineralized zones to explore for additional resource potential over a 1,000-meter area.
• Nice Lake Sill – Discovered in 2016, this area is located less than 1,000 meters east of Colomac. Exploration of this area will provide a first pass, complete lithological and geochemical understanding of these Colomac-like sills, which have never been drilled systematically.
• Albatross – A 2,500-meter-long geophysical trend to the west, and on strike with the Cass zone, where surface sampling in 2018 returned up to 4.02 g/t gold within 1,000 meters of Cass.
• Andy Lake – Surface sampling of this previously undrilled gold target located 8.5 kilometers (5.3 miles) north of the Damoti Lake high-grade gold deposit during 2018 returned grades as high as 42.8 g/t gold.
"We believe these targets could contribute significantly to the near-surface resources proximal to the main Colomac deposit," said Salehi.
Nighthawk crews are currently active preparing the Colomac camp for a 2021 drill program slated to get underway by the end of the month.
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.
Reader Comments(0)