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

Nighthawk Gold Corp. Jan. 10 reported that drilling has extended gold mineralization at Damoti Lake, a high-grade gold deposit on the company's Indin Lake property in Northwest Territories.

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.

This deposit lies 28 kilometers (17 miles) south of the Colomac gold project, the site of a past producing mine and the most advanced project for future development on the Indin Lake property.

The 17 holes drilled at Damoti Lake in 2018 mark the first drilling at this deposit in nearly a decade.

"While Nighthawk has not drilled Damoti since 2010, we were eager to resume activities as it represents a unique high-grade, near-surface deposit, one that we consider of great value as potential feed to augment possible future Colomac mine development," said Nighthawk Gold President and CEO Michael Byron.

The 2018 drilling focused on exploring outside of the main Damoti Lake deposit, testing several new targets within the Horseshoe and Red Mountain zones.

Highlights from drilling in the Horseshoe zone include:

• 6.95 meters of 10.12 grams per metric ton gold and 2.5 meters of 8.97 g/t gold in hole D18-02;

• 9.35 meters of 4.34 g/t gold and 5.75 meters of 9.78 g/t gold in D18-02B;

• 23.65 meters of 1.54 g/t gold, 1.2 meters of 9.05 g/t gold and 11.25 meters of 2.18 g/t gold in D18-07; and

• 14.75 meters of 6.91 g/t gold and 9.5 meters of 2.61 g/t gold in D18-07B.

Highlights from drilling in the Red Mountain zone include:

• 8.65 meters of 1.89 g/t gold in D18-06; and

• 4.25 meters of 3.31 g/t gold and 5.25 meters of 2.46 g/t gold in D18-06B.

Nighthawk said these two intercepts at Red Mountain represent a new discovery that remains open in all directions.

Overall, the company says the 2018 Damoti Lake drill program successfully infilled and extended mineralized zones in both areas, intersecting additional near surface as well as deeper mineralization, and highlighting new exploration opportunities within the northern portions of the synclines.

"Our 2009 and 2010 drill programs were mainly directed at validating and expanding the main deposit, while the 2018 drilling was aimed at testing geological exploration targets outside the main body, in search of new growth opportunities," said Byron.

Nighthawk Gold Corp.

A resource calculated for Damoti Lake in 1197 outlined 2.1 million metric tons of material averaging 9.2 g/t (618,518 oz) gold. While this resource is not compliant to modern reporting standards, it shows the deposit's expansion potential.

Nighthawk intends to expand on this potential as it considers Damoti an important Colomac satellite deposit that has a ramp developed into its core, which could provide possible high-grade feed for any future development opportunity at Colomac.

"Additional drilling and exploration work will be contingent upon the incorporation of all drill results to-date into an expanded geological model to assist in target generation and resource evaluation," said the Nighthawk Gold CEO.

–SHANE LASLEY