The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Phase 1 resource expansion, exploration drilling since March North of 60 Mining News – April 16, 2021
Nighthawk Gold has gotten off to an early start on what is shaping up to be the company's most ambitious drill program so far at the Indin Lake gold project in Northwest Territories.
Core from the initial phase of 2021 drilling at Indin Lake is being logged in a new core shack at the district-scale gold exploration project in Northwest Territories.
Nighthawk Gold Corp. April 13 announced that a planned 41,420-meter phase 1 2021 drill program is well underway at its Indin Lake gold property in Canada's Northwest Territories.
Roughly 55% of this initial phase of drilling, which began in late March and is expected to be completed in July, will test greenfield targets. The balance will focus on resource expansion.
According to a calculation released on March 1, Indin Lake hosts 38.7 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 1.81 grams per metric ton (2.25 million ounces) gold, and 11.5 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 2.13 g/t (790,000 oz) gold.
Nighthawk says that all the zones included in this resource continue to hold near-surface, pit-constrained potential both laterally and at depth. These areas will be drilled early in the phase 1 program with the objective of increasing the in-pit resource.
"We are very excited to embark on the 2021 program, which will be our most ambitious drilling campaign to date," said Nighthawk Gold Vice President of Exploration Richard Roy. "We have assembled a mix of targets that support our two-year goals with an emphasis on near-surface mineralization. We believe that this approach can rapidly identify quality ounces that can contribute significantly to the global resources of the property."
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 during the 2021 program.
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.
"This work is expected to bring the Cass zone into compliance with NI 43-101 standards, while additional drilling will potentially increase its contribution to the global resource base," said Roy.
The company has also selected a series of grassroots targets for the greenfield portion of this initial phase. Priority has been given to near-surface, higher grade potential targets near the Colomac project area. This includes:
• Nice Lake – 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 returned grades as high as 42.8 g/t gold.
In addition to drilling, Nighthawk plans to conduct a till sampling program covering a 15-kilometer- (9.3 miles) radius surrounding the main Colomac deposit. The till sampling program will look to identify and target gold-bearing sectors not identified by previous work, and to help discover new anomalous gold zones to better understand and manage the landholdings.
"This level of greenfield work allows us to broadly test and better understand the true potential of our land position, and to ensure that we do not miss out on any new and exciting discoveries," Roy said.
The scope and targets for a second phase of the 2021 Indin Lake drill program will be determined by the success of phase 1 drilling.
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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