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

Nighthawk Gold Corp. focused its 2018 drill program on expanding a substantial gold resource and investigating the district-scale potential of its 222,203-acre Indin Lake gold property in Northwest Territories. Located roughly 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Yellowknife, Indin Lake hosts numerous gold deposits, including the historical Colomac open-pit mine, which produced 527,908 ounces of gold during the 1990s.

Colomac hosts 50.3 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.62 grams per metric ton (2.61 million ounces) of gold, according to a resource calculated in May.

Roughly 2.55 million oz of this gold is found at Colomac and Goldcrest, parallel trends of dikes and sills within a larger greenstone belt.

"It is notable that to date, the deposit has only had 141,013 meters of drilling, yet is tracking to exceed 3 million ounces with an abundance of real estate not yet explored," said Nighthawk Gold President and CEO Michael Byron.

This year's 32,504-meter drill program focused on the delineation of known high-grade Colomac gold targets, such as Zone 1.5; testing other high-grade gold zones at Colomac; and exploring priority targets across the vast Indin Lake gold property.

The exploration drilling tapped high-grade gold at Leta Arm, one of the primary Indin Lake gold project areas beyond Colomac.

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

Exploration shafts and limited underground development were completed on the North Inca and Diversified gold deposits in the 1940s and 1950s.

All four Leta Arm targets lie along a linear array – Diversified is 1,300 meters north of North Inca; Number 3 lies between them; and Lexindin is about 1,200 meters north of Diversified. Nighthawk said these underexplored deposits remain open and may be part of a single extensive system.

Drilling at North Inca this year cut near-surface gold in two quartz-rich vein systems. Highlights from this drilling include 25.5 meters of 2.68 g/t gold; 9.25 meters of 4.49 g/t gold; and 11.25 meters 3.26 g/t gold.

Highlights from drilling at Diversified include 17.5 meters of 5.81 g/t gold; 14.1 meters of 3.5 g/t gold; and 10 meters of 4.9 g/t gold.

One hole drilled at Number 3 cut 10 meters averaging 3.54 g/t gold; and a hole drilled into Lexindin cut 21.8 meters averaging 1.2 g/t gold.

Nighthawk also drilled Grizzly Bear, one of five deposits that make up the Colomac project. Located roughly 4,000 meters south of Zone 1.5 at Colomac, Grizzly Bear had never been drilled by Nighthawk. Previous drilling, however, has outlined 807,000 metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.04 g/t (27,000 oz) gold.

The company said all 11 holes drilled this year at Grizzly Bear cut gold mineralization, including several broad zones which remain open to depth.

Highlights from the 2018 holes at Grizzly Bear include: 6.25 meters of 4.04 g/t gold in hole GB18-02; 17.25 meters of 2 g/t gold in GB18-02B, including 4.5 meters of 5.13 g/t gold; and 16 meters of 1.98 g/t gold in GB18-03.

In addition to Grizzly Bear, drilling at Colomac includes expansion drilling at four zones included in the current resource.

Drilling is also being carried out this year at Damoti Lake, a high-grade gold deposit about 14 miles (22 kilometers) south of Colomac.

A resource calculated for Anaconda Gold Corp. in 2005 outlined 40,600 metric tons of measured and indicated resource at Damoti Lake averaging 26.17 g/t gold; plus 17,800 metric tons of inferred resource averaging 16.38 g/t gold.

-SHANE LASLEY

Nighthawk Gold Corp. - TSX.V: NHK

Chairman: Morris Prychidny

President and CEO: Michael Byron

VP, Corporate Development: Suzette Ramcharan

150 York St., Ste. 410, Toronto, ON, M5H 3S5

Tel: 647-260-1247