Nighthawk finds more high-grade gold showings in NWT

Regional exploration last year on its Indin Lake gold property, 200 km north of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, turned up high-grade gold in grab samples from three areas, including 174.50 grams gold per tonne at Fishhook, the southernmost project on its 899 sq. km land package, Nighthawk Gold (TSX: NHK; US-OTC: MIMZF) reports.

Fishhook consists of several historical gold showings spanning an area of 6 by 1.5 km, 40 km southwest of the company’s main Colomac project. Grab samples from the 2018 exploration program at Fishhook returned 15.30 grams gold per tonne, 9.88 grams gold, 7.94 grams gold and 5.83 grams gold.

The showings at Fishhook are hosted by complex, folded, amphibolitic oxide-silicate iron formation within a sequence of metasedimentary rocks — an environment Nighthawk says is similar to its Damoti Lake gold deposit, 28 km south of Colomac.

Last June, Nighthawk updated the resource for its flagship Colomac project to 50.3 million inferred tonnes grading 1.62 grams gold per tonne for 2.6 million contained oz. gold. The resource includes three gold deposits: Colomac, Grizzly Bear and Goldcrest.

The Colomac main deposit was mined intermittently from 1990 to 1997, with reported production of 527,908 oz. gold and an average head grade of 1.66 grams per tonne.

Exploration last year also found areas of high-grade mineralization within the Nice Lake Sill, where grab samples returned 41.90 grams gold, 38.90 grams gold and 19.05 grams gold.

The airstrip at Nighthawk Gold’s Colomac gold project in the Northwest Territories. Credit: Nighthawk Gold.

The Nice Lake sill was discovered in 2016, while Nighthawk was prospecting a large, linear anomaly — 1.5 km east of Colomac — that showed similar magnetic intensity and anomaly shape to both the Colomac and Goldcrest sills. The Nice Lake sill has been traced over 4 km in outcrop, along a trend subparallel to the Colomac sill.

Outcrop mapping between Colomac, Nice Lake and areas east of Nice Lake also found smaller sills within a 2 km wide corridor, and the company says that the sills show the same intensity of deformation and alteration associated with gold in the Colomac main sill.

The company also found high-grade gold mineralization at Andy Lake, 20 km south of Colomac, where a grab sample from last year’s program returned 42.10 grams gold. Other samples included 8.79 grams gold and 3.46 grams gold. Nighthawk says Andy Lake could host an intrusion-related gold system dominated by mineralized quartz veins.

At Laurie Lake, 8.5 km northwest of Colomac, surface samples taken from a 1.3 by 1.7 km area returned values ranging from 1.05 grams gold to 22.50 grams gold. The 2018 prospecting program at Laurie Lake was a follow-up of Nighthawk’s work there in 2014, when it sampled gold-bearing sulphide mineralization within the Laurie Lake iron formation. Forty-four samples were analyzed, and 38 containing gold at or above detection limits — with the best sampled from an oxidized, foliated, banded-iron formation assaying 4.17 grams gold.

Sampling of a historic trench at Treasure Island, meanwhile, which sits 11 km north of Colomac and 4 km from Laurie Lake, returned up to 45.60 grams gold.

Treasure Island is the northernmost project on the Indin Lake property and lies within the eastern end of the 7 km long Treasure Island-Laurie Lake mineralized corridor, which has several surface gold showings.

The company first drilled Treasure Island in 2011 to test the main zone along the southern edge of the island, and all of the holes reported gold mineralization. The company drilled 16 holes last year in a 4,035-metre program, and all of them intersected mineralization, with visible gold in 14.

Highlights included 46 metres grading 3.31 grams gold from 118 metres downhole, including 22 metres of 6.23 grams gold, and 19 metres grading 7.37 grams gold from 165 metres below surface, including 8 metres of 16.14 grams gold.

So far, drilling at Treasure Island has confirmed the gold system is upwards of 200 metres wide, 700 metres long, and open in all directions. The company says Treasure Island could become a high-grade feeder to future mining scenarios at Colomac.

A drill at Nighthawk Gold’s Colomac gold project in the Northwest Territories. Credit: Nighthawk Gold.

Nighthawk also drilled the first holes on its Swamp project, 6 km northwest of Colomac. The best results showed 6.83 grams gold over 1 metre from 112 metres below surface and 3.33 grams gold over 3 metres from 117 metres downhole, including 6.06 grams over 1 metre. Nighthawk says it needs more work to fully evaluate Swamp’s 1.6 by 1 km mineralized footprint.

“These recent results fortify my initial perception when I first looked at the camp,” Michael Byron, the company’s president and CEO, tells The Northern Miner. “I saw an untapped Archean landscape, vastly underexplored, with varied deposit types all hosting grade. It truly was akin to looking at the Timmins camp, 100 years ago.”

Other exciting regional targets on the property include Leta Arm, 15 km southwest of Colomac, and Damoti Lake.

Leta Arm straddles the Leta Arm fault zone, a north- to south-trending regional deformation zone up to 10 km long and 500 metres wide, which hosts two historical gold mines — North Inca and Diversified — and two gold showings, No. 3 and Lexindrin.

The Diversified mine is 1.3 km north of the North Inca mine and the No. 3 showing occurs between the two (450 metres south of the Diversified shaft and 800 metres south of North Inca’s East zone.) Lexindrin is 1.2 km north of the Diversified shaft.

Damoti Lake is a deposit in iron formation. Previous owners, Anaconda Gold, completed a resource estimate in 2005 outlining 40,600 measured and indicated tonnes grading 26.17 grams gold in addition to 17,800 inferred tonnes grading 16.38 grams gold at an 8 gram cut-off grade.

Nighthawk estimates its Indin Lake property takes up 95% of the Indin Lake greenstone belt—roughly three times the size of the core Timmins camp, by its estimates.

“While Colomac remains our focus, and is the most advanced project, the regional play, and the potential of our district-scale land package, is what heightens our excitement,” Byron says.

According to a corporate presentation, Northfield Capital Corp. owns a 15% stake in the company, Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) owns 9%; Osisko Gold Royalties (TSX: OR; NYSE: OR), 9%; and institutional investors, 19%.

Nighthawk is trading at 41¢ within a 52-week range of 29.5¢ and 72¢ per share. The junior explorer has 194 million common shares outstanding for a $78.4-million market capitalization.