NHK Nighthawk Gold Corp

TSX: NHK
OTCQX: MIMZF

TORONTO, March 8, 2022 /CNW/ - Nighthawk Gold Corp. ("Nighthawk" or the "Company") (TSX: NHK) (OTCQX: MIMZF) is pleased to report an updated Mineral Resource Estimate¹, on its 100%-owned, district-scale Indin Lake Gold Property (the "2022 MRE"), located 200 kilometres ("km") north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. The 2022 MRE (refer to Table 1 for a summary) demonstrates a substantial expansion in pit-constrained ("OP") mineralization compared to the estimates reported in 2021 ("2021 Estimate")² and the potential for a future large-scale, higher-grade, open-pit project in the district.  

Highlights:

• 2022 MRE demonstrates a significant increase in potential OP Mineral Resource ounces (see Table 2):
• • OP Indicated mineral resource estimates increased 121% to 2,062,400 gold ounces compared to the 2021 Estimate² of 933,400 gold ounces, reflecting a decrease in the estimated average grade to 1.38 grams per tonne gold ("g/t Au") as compared to 1.62 g/t Au for the 2021 Estimate²
  • OP Inferred mineral resource estimates increased 1,400% to 601,000 gold ounces compared to the 2021 Estimate² of 40,100 gold ounces, reflecting an increase in the estimated average grade to 2.39 g/t Au as compared to 1.68 g/t Au for the 2021 Estimate²
• 2022 MRE demonstrates a significant increase in the Global (potential OP + Underground "UG")) Mineral Resource ounces:
• • Global Indicated mineral resource estimates increased 19% to 2,687,100 gold ounces compared to the 2021 Estimate² of 2,249,100 gold ounces, reflecting a decrease in the estimated average grade to 1.44 g/t Au as compared to 1.81 g/t Au for the 2021 Estimate²
  • Global Inferred mineral resource estimates increased 69% to 1,330,500 gold ounces compared to the 2021 Estimate² of 786,100 gold ounces, reflecting a slight decrease in the estimated average grade to 2.10 g/t Au as compared to 2.13 g/t Au for the 2021 Estimate²
• 2022 Exploration Program: The Company plans to commence drilling in May and is currently mobilizing supplies and preparing the site for drilling. Drilling will prioritize the higher-grade targets including Kim & Cass, Damoti, and Treasure Island and will consider other grassroots opportunities.

Table 1: 2022 MRE** (Effective date of March 7, 2022). Please review "Notes to the 2022 MRE" at the end of the news release for additional information.

Table 2: Comparison between 2022 MRE** and 2021 Estimate^{2, **} – OP and UG mineralization

Keyvan Salehi, President & CEO commented: "We are extremely pleased with the results of the updated 2022 MRE, which exceeded our own expectations. The shift in our strategy early last year towards higher-grade, pit-constrained mineralization, combined with a much more accelerated and aggressive approach towards exploration, have resulted in a significant expansion in the OP mineral resource estimates at our property. We have successfully increased our OP mineral resource estimates to approximately 2.1 million ounces in the Indicated category and 0.6 million ounces in the Inferred category. After evaluating all the data and working towards a future conceptual mine plan, we believe that the scalability of the project to a potentially robust, large open-pit operation, far outweighs the marginal decrease in overall OP grades compared to the 2021 Estimate. With just over 72,000 metres of drilling completed last year, our current evaluations and consideration of the project benefit tremendously from the extensive information received from our 2021 drill campaign."

"We are particularly excited about the contributions of higher-grade, near-surface mineralization from the Kim & Cass, Damoti, and Treasure Island deposits. These four deposits combined represent approximately 0.5 million ounces grading 2.62 g/t Au of Inferred estimated mineral resources in the 2022 MRE. These higher-grade deposits remain open along strike and at depth providing an opportunity to further enhance the global mineral resource estimated grades with additional drilling. Our 2022 exploration program will focus on expanding higher-grade mineralization, whilst continuously looking at the entire property for additional higher-grade targets and long-term opportunities. We look forward to providing timely updates on our 2022 exploration program and other developments."  

2022 MRE
The 2022 MRE benefits from 39,065 metres ("m") of drilling information from the 2021 and 2020 (drill data that was not included in the 2021 Estimate²) exploration programs. Mineral resource expansion drilling in 2021 was principally on-strike of the deposits, to increase drill density in areas where drill data was limited and to test the lateral extent of smaller deposits. The 2022 MRE is comprised of nine (9) deposits. Five (5) deposits are located within the Colomac Centre (Colomac Main, Goldcrest, Grizzly Bear, 24 and 27). The remaining four (4) satellite deposits are located between 11 km to 28 km from the Colomac Centre (Kim, Cass, Damoti, and Treasure Island) and demonstrate typically higher-grade OP mineralization compared to the deposits within the Colomac Centre (please refer to Figure 1 for a regional map of the Indin Lake Gold Property). The Damoti Deposit was re-evaluated as a potential OP deposit in the 2022 MRE (it was considered a potential UG deposit in the 2021 Estimate²) due to the proximity of the known mineralization to the surface and land access. Please refer to Figures 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 for the mineral resource estimate longitudinal section views of the Colomac Main, Cass, Kim, Damoti Lake, and Treasure Island deposits, respectively.

The 2022 MRE was generated using various cut-off grades: Between 0.50-0.63 g/t Au for potential OP mineralization (depending on the deposit) and 1.02-1.83 g/t Au for the potential UG mineralization (depending on the deposit and UG extraction – bulk or selective). Specific extraction methods are used only to establish reasonable cut-off grades for various portions of the deposits. 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 specified mining method. The reasonable prospect for an eventual economical extraction is met by having used reasonable cut-off grades both for a potential OP and UG extraction scenarios and constraining volumes (Deswik shapes and optimized pit-shell).

Assumptions and Parameters
The 2022 MRE includes a few assumptions and parameters that are different compared to the 2021 Estimate². Please see Table 3 for a summary of the assumptions and parameters for the 2022 MRE and 2021 Estimate². Due to the significant expansion in the potential OP mineralization at Colomac Centre and the satellite deposits, the Company and its independent consultants believe that there is potential for a future, large-scale, OP operation at its properties. A potential large-scale OP operation would entail lower cost per tonne assumptions, which resulted in a lower estimated OP cut-off grade range in the 2022 MRE compared to the 2021 Estimate². In addition, the lower cut-off grades in the 2022 MRE resulted in a larger amount of mineralized blocks above the cut-off grade and a slight decrease in average grades compared to the 2021 Estimate². The larger amount of mineralized blocks above the cut-off grade provides more flexibility to build an optimal conceptual mine plan in the future.     

Table 3: Comparison between 2022 MRE and 2021 Estimate² – Assumptions and Parameters

2022 Exploration Program
The Company is currently evaluating the 2022 MRE and finalizing the 2022 Exploration Program.  The 2022 Exploration Program will be carried out in a phased approach and will focus on expanding the potential OP mineralization of the higher-grade deposits, particularly Kim, Cass, Damoti, and Treasure Island.  

Technical Information
Nighthawk has implemented a quality-control program to comply with best practices in the sampling and analysis of drill core.  Drill core samples were transported in security-sealed bags for analyses at ALS Global Assay Laboratory in Vancouver, BC ("ALS Global"). ALS Global is an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory. Pulp and metallics assaying for gold were conducted on the entire pulverized sample.

As part of its QA/QC program, Nighthawk inserts external gold standards (low to high-grade) and blanks every 20 samples in addition to the standards, blanks, and pulp duplicates inserted by ALS Global.

Technical Report and Qualified Persons
A Technical Report prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 (as defined below) in support of the 2022 MRE will be filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) before March 31, 2022. Readers are encouraged to read the Technical Report in its entirety, including all qualifications, assumptions and exclusions that relate to the 2022 MRE. The Technical Report is intended to be read as a whole, and sections should not be read or relied upon out of context.

Technical information related to the 2021 MRE contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Marina Iund, M.Sc., P.Geo., Carl Pelletier, P.Geo., and Simon Boudreau, P.Eng. of InnovExplo, who are Independent and Qualified Persons as defined by NI 43-101, with the ability and authority to verify the authenticity and validity of this data.

Richard Roy P.Geo., V.P. Exploration of Nighthawk, who is the Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 for this project, has reviewed and approved of the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this news release. 

About Nighthawk
Nighthawk is a Canadian-based gold exploration company with 100% ownership of more than 930 km² of district-scale land position within the Indin Lake Greenstone Belt, located approximately 200 km north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. The Company is advancing several highly prospective exploration targets. Nighthawk's experienced management team, with a track record of successfully advancing projects and operating mines, is working towards demonstrating the economic viability of its assets and rapidly advancing its projects towards a development decision.

Notes to accompany the 2022 MRE

• Notes to accompany the Mineral Resource Estimate:
• The independent and qualified persons for the mineral resource estimate, as defined by NI 43-101, are Marina Iund, P.Geo., Carl Pelletier, P.Geo. and Simon Boudreau, P.Eng. all from InnovExplo Inc., and the effective date is March 7, 2022.
• These mineral resources are not mineral reserves, as they do not have demonstrated economic viability. The mineral resource estimate follows current CIM definitions and guidelines.
• The results are presented undiluted and are considered to have reasonable prospects of economic viability.
• The estimate encompasses nine (9) gold deposits (Cass, Colomac, Damoti, Goldcrest, Grizzly Bear, Kim, Treasure Island, 24 and 27), subdivided into 106 individual zones (3 for Cass, 6 for Colomac, 38 for Damoti, 3 for Goldcrest, 4 for Grizzly Bear, 1 for Kim, 45 for Treasure Island, 4 for 24 and 2 for 27) using the grade of the adjacent material when assayed or a value of zero when not assayed. Five (5) low-grade envelopes were created: 1 for Colomac (quartz diorite dyke) and 4 for Damoti (BIF).
• High-grade capping supported by statistical analysis was done on raw assay data before compositing and established on a per-zone basis varying from 30 to 100 g/t Au for mineralized zones and 15 to 20 g/t Au for the envelopes.
• The estimate was completed using sub-block models in GEOVIA Surpac 2021, except Treasure Island was estimated using sub-block model in Leapfrog Edge 2021.1.
• Grade interpolation was performed with the ID3 method on 1.5 m composites for the Colomac, Goldcrest and Grizzly Bear deposits, with the ID2 method on 1 m composites for the Cass and Treasure Island deposits, with the ID3 method on 1 m composites for the Kim deposit, with the ID2 method on 1.5 m composites for the 24/27 deposits, and with the OK method on 1.0 m composites for the Damoti deposit.
• A density of value of 3.2 g/cm³ (Damoti), 3.0 g/cm³ (Cass), 2.95 g/cm³ (Kim), 2.7 g/cm³ (Colomac, Goldcrest, Grizzly Bear, Treasure Island and 24/27,) and 2.00 g/cm³ (overburden) was assigned.
• The mineral resource estimate is classified as Indicated and Inferred. For the Cass, Colomac, Goldcrest and Grizzly Bear, Kim, Treasure Island, 27 and 27 deposits, the Inferred category is defined with a minimum of two (2) drill holes within the areas where the drill spacing is less than 75 m and shows reasonable geological and grade continuity. The Indicated mineral resource category is defined with a minimum of tree (3) drill holes within the areas where the drill spacing is less than 50 m. For the Damoti deposit, the Inferred category is defined with a minimum of two (2) drill holes within the areas where the drill spacing is less than 60 m and shows reasonable geological and grade continuity. Clipping boundaries were used for classification based on those criteria.
• The mineral resource estimate is locally pit-constrained with a bedrock slope angle of 50° and an overburden slope angle of 30°. It is reported at a rounded cut-off grade of 0.50 to 0.63 g/t Au (OP), 1.02 g/t Au (UG bulk) and 1.45 to 1.83 g/t Au (UG selective). The cut-off grades were calculated using the following parameters: mining cost = CA$3.25/t to CA$ 73.00/t; processing cost = CA$21.00/t; G&A = CA$6.00/t; refining costs = CA$5.00/oz; selling costs = CA$ 5.00/oz to CA$53.00/oz; gold price = US$1,600.00/oz; USD:CAD exchange rate = 1.25; and mill recovery = 97.0%. The cut-off grades should be re-evaluated in light of future prevailing market conditions (metal prices, exchange rates, mining costs etc.).
• The number of metric tonnes was rounded to the nearest thousand, following the recommendations in NI 43 101 and any discrepancies in the totals are due to rounding effects. The metal contents are presented in troy ounces (tonnes x grade / 31.10348).
• The authors are not aware of any known environmental, permitting, legal, title-related, taxation, socio-political, or marketing issues, or any other relevant issue not reported in the Technical Report, that could materially affect the Mineral Resource Estimate.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, information with respect to: the Company's mineral resource estimates, continued exploration and drilling initiatives, assumptions on extending mineralization, the prospectivity of exploration targets, the potential economic viability of the assets, the potential for a future large-scale, OP operation in the district, and the advancement of projects towards a development decision. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "appears", "increase", "forward", "updating", "justification", "add" or "additional", "support", "plans", "expected" or "expectations", "budget", "scheduled",  "estimates", "forecasts", "potentially", "prospective", "prioritize", "reflects", "goal", "will be" or "will consider", "can be", "intends", "advancing", "work towards", "demonstrating", "towards", "opportunity", "re-envisioning", "anticipates", or "does not anticipate", or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", or "will be taken", "occur", or "be achieved".

Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the information is made, and is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Nighthawk to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including risks associated with the exploration, development and mining such as economic factors as they effect exploration, future commodity prices, changes in foreign exchange and interest rates, actual results of current exploration activities, government regulation, political or economic developments, environmental risks, permitting timelines, capital expenditures, operating or technical difficulties in connection with development activities, employee relations, the speculative nature of gold exploration and development, including the risks of diminishing quantities of grades of reserves, contests over title to properties, and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined as well as those risk factors discussed in Nighthawk's annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2020, available on www.sedar.com.  Although Nighthawk has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Nighthawk does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Cautionary Statement regarding Mineral Resource Estimates

Until mineral deposits are actually mined and processed, Mineral Resources must be considered as estimates only. Mineral Resource estimates that are not Mineral Reserves and have not demonstrated economic viability. The estimation of Mineral Resources is inherently uncertain, involves subjective judgement about many relevant factors and may be materially affected by, among other things, environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors described in the Company's public disclosure available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The quantity and grade of reported "Inferred" Mineral Resource estimates are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define "Inferred" Mineral Resource estimates as an "Indicated" or "Measured" Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading "Inferred" Mineral Resource estimates to an "Indicated" or "Measured" Mineral Resource category. The accuracy of any Mineral Resource estimates is a function of the quantity and quality of available data, and of the assumptions made and judgments used in engineering and geological interpretation, which may prove to be unreliable and depend, to a certain extent, upon the analysis of drilling results and statistical inferences that may ultimately prove to be inaccurate. Mineral Resource estimates may have to be re-estimated based on, among other things: (i) fluctuations in mineral prices; (ii) results of drilling, and development; (iii) results of future test mining and other testing; (iv) metallurgical testing and other studies; (v) results of geological and structural modeling including block model design; (vi) proposed mining operations, including dilution; (vii) the evaluation of future mine plans subsequent to the date of any estimates; and (viii) the possible failure to receive required permits, licenses and other approvals. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of a "inferred" or "indicated" Mineral Resource estimate will ever be upgraded to a higher category.  The Mineral Resource estimates disclosed in this news release were reported using Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (the "CIM Standards") in accordance with National Instrument 43-101- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101").

Cautionary Statement to U.S. Readers

This news release uses the terms "Mineral Resource", "Indicated Mineral Resource" and "Inferred Mineral Resource" as defined in the CIM Standards in accordance with NI 43-101. While these terms are recognized and required by the Canadian Securities Administrators in accordance with Canadian securities laws, they may not be recognized by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

The "Mineral Resource" estimates and related information in this news release may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S. companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements under the United States federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. 

SOURCE Nighthawk Gold Corp.