Manhattan Gold Expands Jaws Strike to 1,252m With 275m Step-Out Hit
Key Takeaways
- Drillhole JWS26012, located 275m southwest of the nearest previous hole, returned 21.34m @ 1.72g/t Au from just 32.0m depth, including a high-grade core of 1.52m @ 9.35g/t Au.
- The Jaws gold system now has a drill-confirmed strike length of 1,252m, with a 490m higher-grade core zone sitting within that broader mineralised corridor.
- Hole JWS26011 returned anomalous gold values 650m outside the historic drilling footprint, confirming the search space continues to expand in consistent geological conditions.
- Ten drillholes across regional targets — including Spectre, Quantum, Lotus, and Omega — are currently pending assay results, with Spectre historically returning 10.51m @ 2.91% Cu, 6.70% Zn, 95.67g/t Ag and 1.04g/t Au.
- Integration of 2026 drilling data with airborne magnetics, LiDAR, and till geochemistry is expected to drive targeted 2027 diamond drilling across areas not previously tested.
Major step-out confirms Jaws gold system extends well beyond historic footprint
A significant step-out drillhole has extended the Jaws gold system well beyond its previously known boundaries, with Manhattan Gold Corporation Limited (ASX: MHC) reporting that hole JWS26012 returned 21.34m @ 1.72g/t Au from 32.0m, including 4.57m @ 4.89g/t Au and 1.52m @ 9.35g/t Au, at its Hook Lake Project in Nunavut, Canada. The hole was drilled more than 275m southwest of the nearest previous drillhole (JWS26006b, which returned 41.15m @ 4.66g/t Au), confirming gold mineralisation well outside the historically tested area. Drilling has now been confirmed across a total strike length of 1,252m, with 490m of higher-grade gold sitting within that broader zone.
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Drilling results at Jaws
Headline intercept — JWS26012
JWS26012 represents a meaningful spatial step-out, located 275m southwest of the nearest previous hole. The intercept begins from just 32.0m depth, a shallow starting point that preserves future development optionality. All reported intervals are drilled lengths, not true thicknesses.
| Hole ID | Comment | From (m) | To (m) | Interval (m) | Au (g/t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JWS26012 | 32.00 | 53.34 | 21.34 | 1.72 | |
| JWS26012 | Including | 45.72 | 50.29 | 4.57 | 4.89 |
| JWS26012 | Including | 45.72 | 47.24 | 1.52 | 9.35 |
| JWS26011 | 129.54 | 131.06 | 1.52 | 0.20 | |
| JWS26011 | 147.83 | 149.35 | 1.52 | 0.11 |
The geology intersected in JWS26012 is consistent with gold associated with pyrite-arsenopyrite mineralisation within and surrounding quartz veins, within a silicified and foliated mafic volcanic package — the same structural setting seen in previous higher-grade intercepts at Jaws.
Strike now confirmed across 1.25km
Hole JWS26011, located more than 650m outside the historic drilling footprint, returned anomalous gold values of 1.52m @ 0.20g/t Au from 129.54m and 1.52m @ 0.11g/t Au from 147.83m in shear zones with similar geology to Jaws. This is not a discovery, but it confirms that the search space continues to expand in consistent geological conditions.
The combined picture from 2026 drilling now looks like this:
- 1,252m total drill-confirmed strike length at Jaws
- 490m higher-grade core zone within the broader mineralised corridor
- 275m step-out from nearest previous drillhole (JWS26006b)
- 650m extent beyond the historic drilling footprint (JWS26011)
For context, the Jaws target hosts a historic (non-JORC) resource estimate of 3.4Mt @ 2.38g/t Au (~285,000oz Au). Investors should note this is a “Foreign” estimate, not reported in accordance with the JORC Code 2012. A competent person has not done sufficient work to classify it as Exploration Results, Mineral Resources, or Ore Reserves under the JORC Code, and it is uncertain whether, following further evaluation, the historical estimate will be able to be reported in accordance with JORC Code (2012). It is referenced here only to give a sense of the scale of the known system.
For readers wanting to trace the full drilling history behind the current resource context, our detailed coverage of the Hook Lake exploration results documents the intercepts and grade distribution from earlier campaigns that underpin the historic estimate referenced here.
Sam Vaughan, Technical Advisor, Manhattan Gold Corporation Ltd
“JWS26012 is exactly the type of result we wanted from this major step-out. More than 275m southwest of the nearest drillhole, it returned 21.34m at 1.72g/t Au from just 32m, including 4.57m at 4.89g/t Au and 1.52m at 9.35g/t Au. It confirms that Jaws continues to deliver substantial gold intervals well beyond the area tested historically.
We now have 490m of higher-grade gold sitting within a 1,252m zone of drill-confirmed anomalous mineralisation, and with JWS26011 returning anomalous gold 650m outside the historic drilling footprint, the search space continues to expand…”
Why strike length matters for orogenic gold systems
Orogenic gold systems are deposits where gold is concentrated in shear zones (deep crustal fracture corridors) during tectonic events, typically forming long, continuous mineralised corridors. The geology at Jaws is consistent with this deposit type, with gold mineralisation structurally controlled by regional shear zones transecting the project on a broadly northeast trend.
For investors, strike length expansion matters because a longer mineralised corridor means a larger potential resource footprint, more drillable targets, and greater upside before resource definition is attempted. Each confirmed step-out at Jaws adds to the total area that warrants systematic follow-up drilling.
The shallow depth of the JWS26012 intercept, beginning from just 32.0m, is also worth noting. Near-surface mineralisation reduces future extraction complexity compared with deeply buried deposits. Hook Lake sits within the Rankin-Ennadai greenstone belt, the same geological setting that hosts Agnico Eagle’s Meliadine mine — which provides a sense of the prospective neighbourhood, without implying any equivalence to Manhattan’s current position in the exploration cycle.
For grade context, the announcement notes that gold grades returned from 2026 drilling at Jaws sit within the range reported at BG Gold’s Vickers deposit, which applied a 0.90g/t Au cut-off grade for its positive preliminary economic assessment. The Vickers deposit is located approximately 150km east of the Hook Lake Project within the same Rankin-Ennadai greenstone belt. Investors should note that the Vickers deposit is held by BG Gold Capital II Corp. and is not held by or attributable to Manhattan Gold Corporation. BG Gold’s resource estimate is prepared under Canadian National Instrument 43-101 and is not reported in accordance with the JORC Code (2012).
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Strong pipeline ahead — regional targets and 2027 planning
Beyond Jaws, Manhattan has completed maiden drilling across several regional targets within the Hook Lake Project, with 10 drillholes currently pending assay results. Three of those pending holes are at Spectre, a volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit where historic drilling returned 10.51m @ 2.91% Cu, 6.70% Zn, 95.67g/t Ag and 1.04g/t Au.
The Hook Lake field programme that preceded the current 2026 campaign established the regional target framework now being systematically tested across Spectre, Quantum, Lotus, and Omega.
The regional targets now drill-tested for the first time include:
- Spectre — a volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit (VMS deposits are seafloor volcanic systems where base and precious metals are concentrated through hydrothermal activity)
- Quantum and Lotus — orogenic gold targets where surface sampling in 2025 returned 16.75g/t and 8.01g/t Au respectively
- Omega — a banded iron formation (BIF) target, a rock type associated with significant gold deposits in Nunavut greenstone terrain
Till sampling (a geochemical survey method that analyses glacially transported sediment to trace the source of metallic anomalies) has now been completed across northeastern Jaws extensions and the Omega BIF zone. Those results are expected to identify anomalous gold areas guided by a pathfinder element assemblage of arsenic, antimony, and tungsten, and will inform 2027 drilling in areas that have not previously been tested.
Metallurgical test work samples from drillholes JWS26008 and SPC26001 have been dispatched to SEPRO laboratories in British Columbia, Canada — foundational work for future technical studies. Looking further ahead, integration of 2026 drilling data with airborne magnetics, LiDAR, and till geochemistry is expected to drive targeted 2027 exploration planning. The company intends to utilise diamond drilling in 2027 to better manage ground condition variations that affected RC drilling efficiency in some locations during the current programme.
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