The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Drills show expansion potential at the Grizzly Bear deposit North of 60 Mining News – June 11, 2021
By early April, technicians were already logging core from the 45,000-meter initial phase of 2021 Indin Lake drilling.
Nighthawk Gold Corp. May 8 reported the first batch of results from a planned 75,000-meter drill program at its Indin Lake gold property in Canada's Northwest Territories.
This enormous 2021 drill campaign has been divided into two parts, with the roughly 45,000-meter initial phase focused primarily on resource expansion targets at Colomac, the most advanced project at Indin Lake.
According to a calculation completed earlier this year, 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.
The first batch of 2021 assays is from 18 holes drilled at Grizzly Bear, one of the deposits contributing to this resource.
Located toward the south end of the Colomac project area, Grizzly Bear hosts 776,000 metric tons of open pit indicated resource averaging 1.57 g/t (39,200 oz) gold and 208,000 metric tons of underground indicated resource averaging 1.68 g/t (11,200 oz) gold.
The early 2021 drilling at Grizzly Bear focused on expanding the near-surface, open-pit resource.
"The phase I program at Grizzly Bear was designed to test the near-surface extension of this satellite deposit both to the north and south. Results from the north extension were in line with expectations and confirm the presence of near-surface mineralization with significant results obtained above 200 meters depth," said Nighthawk Gold Vice President of Exploration Richard Roy.
The best intercepts were encountered northeast of the Grizzly Bear resource area, including 10.25 meters averaging 2.77 g/t gold hole GB21-07 and 5.75 meters averaging 1.63 g/t gold in GB21-11.
Nighthawk reports that visible gold was observed in these, and three other holes drilled along a 175-meter stretch northeast of the resource.
Drilled at the edge of the resource, hole GB21-13 cut 6.15 meters averaging 4.64 g/t gold.
"The Grizzly Bear satellite deposit, although narrower than Colomac, remains attractive to the economic potential of the Colomac Center as it is located less than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) to the southwest of the main Colomac deposit," said Roy. "As part of the phase II program, additional infill drilling will focus on delineating the extent and continuity of mineralization identified north of the current resources and to incorporate these results into the subsequent resource update at year end."
As of May 8, Nighthawk has completed 18,200 meters of the initial phase of 2021 drilling at Indin Lake.
Besides Grizzly Bear, drilling has been completed at Goldcrest, which parallels the Colomac deposit and hosts the second largest resource outlined so far at Indin Lake.
There are currently two drills testing the Nice Lake target within the Colomac Center; two are testing the Cass and the Albatross targets southwest of Colomac Center, and one is testing the northern portion of the main Colomac deposit.
"The drilling program is advancing as planned and is now focusing on the Nice Lake and Cass areas which are considered among the best grassroots targets," said Roy. "The Nice Lake area is crossed by virtually untested Colomac-like sills located less than one kilometer to the east of the main Colomac deposit, while Cass consists of a historical (non-compliant), near-surface higher-grade resource located approximately 15 kilometers (nine miles) southwest of Colomac."
The targets for the 30,000-meter second phase of 2021 Indin Lake drilling will be determined by the success of the phase 1 program.
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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