Jaws bares its teeth with more high-grade Canadian gold for Manhattan

Manhattan Gold Corporation has delivered another round of strong, broad gold intercepts from its Jaws prospect in Nunavut, Canada, with drilling extending the known mineralised system by more than 150 metres to the southwest.

The latest results from the company’s maiden drill campaign at its Hook Lake project include a significant 25.9-metre hit grading 1.59 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 89.92m, which housed a richer 6.1-metre core at 3.62g/t gold. This follows on from the stunning interval announced last week of 41.15 metres running at 4.66g/t gold from just 83.82m downhole at the project.

Other notable intersections from this second batch of assays included 35.05m at 1.23g/t gold from 124.97m, with a 9.14-metre slice of 2.52g/t, and 22.86m at 2.37g/t gold from a shallower 74.68m. The latter intercept contained a particularly spicy 1.52-metre section grading a hefty 26.8g/t gold.

The results land at a time when Canada’s vast northern territory of Nunavut is proving to be a hot address for gold explorers. Home to mining giant Agnico Eagle’s 6.7-million-ounce Meliadine operation, 225 kilometres to the northeast and one of Canada’s largest gold mines, peers such as B2Gold and Fury Gold Mines are also advancing programs, underlining the district-scale appetite for new ounces. With the gold price recently pushing higher to more than US$4600 (A$6400) per ounce, any exploration success is getting a serious second look from the market.

Manhattan says the latest intercepts from its Jaws target are returning thicker, higher-grade results than those recorded in nearby historic drilling from 1988, suggesting the company’s modern exploration approach is already paying dividends and adding material upside to the historical data.

Manhattan Gold Corporation technical advisor Eric Sondergaard said: “Drilling at Jaws continues to deliver multiple broad gold zones with higher grade internal cores, led by 25.90 metres at 1.59g/t gold. Drill results including JWS26005 and JWS26006, also highlight the material upside compared to historic drilling by revealing thicker and higher-grade intercepts when compared to the nearest 1988 drillholes.”

Jaws, the most advanced target at Hook Lake, hosts a non-JORC foreign estimate of 3.4 million tonnes at 2.38g/t gold for 285,000 ounces of gold, defined by drilling in the late 1980’s. Manhattan’s current program has been designed to confirm and potentially expand on that historic work.

Notably, the company’s work has also recalibrated the geological map. Manhattan says its new drilling has shifted the interpreted position of the gold-bearing main shear zone 20m to 30m northwest of where historic records had placed it, providing the company with a sharper geological model for follow-up drilling. The revised geometry of the orebody provides a much stronger basis for follow-up drill targeting and may open up previously under-explored zones.

With the rods still turning at Jaws, Manhattan is looking at a bigger picture for the deposit.