Nighthawk rallies on new NWT gold estimates
Nighthawk Gold Corp. [NHK-TSXV, OTC-MIMZF] shares rallied Tuesday after the company released an updated mineral resource estimate on its 100%-owned Indin Lake gold property in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
The company said the open-pit indicated mineral resource estimate has increased 121% to 2.06 million ounces, up from the 2021 estimate of 933,400 ounces gold. This new estimate reflects a decrease in the average grade to 1.38 g/t gold from 1.62 g/t.
Open pit inferred resources have jumped 1,400% to 601,000 gold ounces from the 2021 estimate of 40,100 gold ounces. That reflects an increase in the estimate average grade to 2.39 g/t gold, up from 1.68 g/t in a 2021 estimate.
Nighthawk Gold shares advanced on the news, rising 7.5% or $0.06 to 86 cents on volume of 653,190. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $1.35 and 64 cents.
The company said the 2022 estimate demonstrates a significant increase in global (potential open pit plus underground resource ounces). In the indicated category, the global resource estimate has jumped 19% to 2.68 million gold ounces. Global inferred resources have risen 69% to 1.33 million gold ounces.
The latest estimate is based on 39,065 metres of drilling information from 2021 and 2021 exploration programs, including drilling data that was not included in the 2021 estimate. The estimate covers nine deposits, of which five (Colomac Main, Goldcrest, Grizzly Bear, 24 and 27) are located within the Colomac Centre area.
The remaining four satellite deposits are located between 11 and 28 kilometres from Colomac Centre and include Kim, Cass, Damoti and Treasure Island). They typically demonstrate higher-grade open pit mineralization compared to the deposits within Colomac Centre.
Due to the proximity of the known mineralization to the surface and land access, the Damoti Deposit was re-evaluated as a potential open pit deposit in the 2022 mineral resource estimate. Whereas in the 2021 estimate it was only considered for its potential as an underground deposit.
However, no preliminary economic analysis, pre-feasibility study or feasibility study has been completed to support economic viability and technical feasibility of exploiting any portion of the mineral resources, by any specific mining method.
Nighthawk plans to commence drilling in May, 2022, and is currently mobilizing supplies and preparing the site for drilling. It said drilling will prioritize the higher-grade targets, including Kim, Cass, Damoti and Treasure Island. The company will also consider other targets.
Nighthawk Gold’s key asset is a district-scale land position within the Indin Lake Greenstone Belt, located approximately 200 kilometres north of Yellowknife.
The Indin Lake property, which covers 90,000 hectares and is thought to contain 20 gold deposits, includes the former Colomac open pit gold mine, which produced 528,000 ounces of gold between 1990 and 1997.