North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Nighthawk Gold Corp. July 5 reported that drilling has tapped new zones of gold mineralization at the Leta Arm project on the company's Indin Lake property in Northwest Territories.

Situated about 16 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of Colomac, the four deposits and showings being drilled this year at Leta Arm – Diversified, Number 3, Lexindin and North Inca – could provide gold-rich satellite ore to a mine developed at Nighthawk's primary gold project on the Indin Lake property.

The latest round of results from drilling at Leta Arm are from 22 holes drilled at the Diversified deposit, as well as the Number 3 and Lexindin showings.

Highlights from these results include a new discovery at Diversified, where hole DV18-08 cut 17.5 meters (about 14 meters true-width) of 5.81 grams per metric ton gold.

Results from other holes drilled at Diversified include: 7.75 meters (five meters true-width) of 3.66 g/t gold in hole DV18-08B; 14.1 meters (seven meters true-width) of 3.5 g/t gold in DV18-06; 11.75 meters (9.5 meters true-width) of 3.86 g/t gold in DV18-07; and 10 meters (five meters true-width) of 4.9 g/t gold in DV18-07B.

One hole drilled at Number 3 (DV318-02) cut 10 meters averaging 3.54 g/t gold; and a hole drilled into Lexindin (LX18-01B) cut 21.8 meters averaging 1.2 g/t gold.

In late June, Nighthawk reported results from North Inca, the other deposit being drilled this year at Leta Arm.

Highlights from the 11 holes drilled there include 25.5 meters (13 meters true-width) of 2.68 g/t gold in hole NI18-03B; 9.25 meters (five meters true-width) of 4.49 g/t gold in NI18-02B; and 11.25 meters (6.5 meters true-width) of 3.26 g/t gold in NI18-05.

Exploration shafts and limited underground development were completed on the North Inca and Diversified gold deposits in the 1940s and 1950s. The historical Diversified Mine is 1,300 meters north of the historical North Inca Mine, Number 3 lying between them and Lexindin is about 1,200 meters north of Diversified.

All deposits lie along a linear array and remain open laterally and vertically, suggesting that they may be part of a single extensive yet underexplored system.

Nighthawk said drilling has validated the northerly steep plunging mineralization model as being a common feature to the four Leta Arm prospects.

Nighthawk Gold Corp.

An aerial view of the Leta Arm project, where Nighthawk Gold's four deposits and showings – Diversified, Number 3, Lexindin and North Inca – this year.

"Given our positive exploration results to-date, we are confident that the four Leta Arm gold deposits and showings are part of the same mineralized system as they share similar styles of mineralization, mineralized widths, general morphology, a common steep northern plunge, and are distributed along a linear array," said Nighthawk President and CEO Michael Byron. "We intend to continue advancing our understanding on the mineralization controls in this high-profile region and will broaden our exploration efforts along the 10 kilometers (six miles) of mineralized stratigraphy in search of new discoveries."

The company has recently received the results of a ground induced polarization geophysical survey over the area between North Inca, Number 3 and Diversified, and is currently processing the data. That information will be used to help better explore to depth and along strike, and to determine if they share a common link. Leta Arm remains a primary focus for Nighthawk and is one of its key regional assets the company is investigating across the Indin Lake property.

"Leta Arm is just one of the many projects that we are aggressively exploring in 2018 and features prominently in our objective of realizing the untapped potential of this fertile gold camp," Byron added.

–SHANE LASLEY