Manhattan Gold Corporation Ltd. Sept. 24 reported another broad gold intercept from its Jaws target at the Hook Lake project in Nunavut, where step-out drilling has extended higher-grade mineralization southwest and confirmed anomalous gold across more than 1,250 meters of strike.
Lying about 225 kilometers (140 miles) southwest of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.’s 6.7-million-ounce Meliadine gold mine, the 665-square-kilometer (257 square miles) Hook Lake project encompasses 12 precious and base metal targets along the Rankin-Ennadai greenstone belt in Nunavut’s Kivalliq region.
After acquiring Hook Lake in 2025, Manhattan began its inaugural drill program at Jaws this summer, initially testing around the historical deposit before stepping progressively farther along strike and into areas outside the earlier drilling footprint.
Early and follow-up drilling returned several broad and locally higher-grade intervals than those indicated by the historical work. Highlights include:
• 41.15 meters averaging 4.66 g/t gold from a depth of 83.82 meters in hole JWS26006b, including 7.62 meters averaging 18.67 g/t gold.
• 74.67 meters averaging 1.61 g/t gold from 21.3 meters in JWS26009, including 15.24 meters averaging 5.35 g/t gold.
As drilling moved beyond the historical footprint, Manhattan continued testing both ends of the developing Jaws trend while using the wider-spaced holes to determine how far the gold-bearing system extends.
Manhattan Gold Corporation Ltd.
That broader drilling has now tested 1,252 meters of strike, with the higher-grade portion of the system traced across roughly 490 meters and anomalous gold encountered substantially farther beyond that core area.
On the southwestern side, hole JWS26012 stepped more than 275 meters beyond the nearest previous hole, cutting 21.34 meters averaging 1.72 g/t gold from a depth of 32 meters, including 4.57 meters averaging 4.89 g/t gold.
“JWS26012 is exactly the type of result we wanted from this major step-out,” said Manhattan Gold Technical Advisor Sam Vaughan. “It confirms that Jaws continues to deliver substantial gold intervals well beyond the area tested historically.”
Farther northeast, JWS26011 tested more than 650 meters outside the historical drilling footprint, cutting 1.52 meters averaging 0.2 g/t gold from 129.54 meters and 1.52 meters averaging 0.11 g/t gold from 147.83 meters.
Two additional holes drilled beneath high-grade 2025 surface samples were unable to reach their planned depths because of poor ground conditions, but still cut 1.53 meters averaging 0.38 g/t gold from 42.67 meters in JWS26007 and 3.05 meters averaging 0.13 g/t gold from 10.67 meters in JWS26007b.
Beyond Jaws, this year’s Hook Lake program has also moved into several less-tested areas across the broader property, with maiden drilling completed at the Spectre volcanogenic massive sulfide target, the Quantum and Lotus orogenic gold targets, and the Omega banded-iron formation target.
Across that wider campaign, assays remain pending for 10 holes, including three drilled at Spectre, where historical work returned high-grade copper, zinc, silver and gold mineralization.
Alongside the drilling, crews have completed regional till sampling across the northeastern extensions of Jaws and around Omega, adding another layer of geochemical data over areas that have seen little or no previous drilling.
That work will be combined with airborne magnetic, and lidar data as Manhattan refines additional targets and begins planning its 2027 exploration program.
Samples at Jaws and Spectre have also been sent for preliminary metallurgical testing, beginning early work on how mineralization from the two targets may respond to processing.
Looking ahead, Manhattan plans to integrate results from this year’s drilling, geophysics, lidar, and till sampling into its next round of targeting, with future drilling expected to rely more heavily on diamond methods after variable ground conditions limited reverse circulation drilling in several areas this season.