Manhattan Gold Expands Jaws System to 588m Strike With 7.05g/t Hit at Depth
Key Takeaways
- Headline intercepts of 15.24m @ 5.35g/t Au (JWS26009) and 7.62m @ 7.05g/t Au (JWS26008) represent the strongest grades returned from the Jaws system to date.
- Gold has been confirmed to 223m vertical depth by JWS26008, materially below anything the 1988 historic drilling programme reached.
- The 2026 drill-tested strike length at Jaws has expanded to 588m, with JWS26010 extending the mineralised footprint more than 290m to the northeast — and the system remains open in that direction.
- High-grade mineralisation in JWS26009 commences at just 18.25m vertical depth, confirming a shallow, near-surface accessible system that reduces future development complexity.
- 14 drillholes are currently pending assay, with drilling set to return to Jaws for follow-up targets — the results pipeline is substantial and near-term.
Strong assays expand Jaws gold system at Hook Lake
Manhattan Gold Corporation Ltd (ASX: MHC) has reported a significant step-change in the understood scale of the Jaws gold target within its Hook Lake Project in Nunavut, Canada. The latest assays include headline intercepts of 15.24m @ 5.35g/t Au (JWS26009) and 7.62m @ 7.05g/t Au (JWS26008), with drilling expanding the mineralised system more than 290m to the northeast and taking the 2026 drill-tested strike length to 588m. Gold has now been confirmed to a vertical depth of 223m, well below the average depth reached by historic drilling efforts.
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Q1 FY27 drilling results — what the assays revealed
Three drillholes define the most recent results batch, and each one answers a different question about the Jaws system.
JWS26008 was the depth and continuity test. It confirmed gold from surface with 41.15m @ 1.06g/t Au starting at 0.00m, then intersected a high-grade zone deeper in the hole returning 51.82m @ 1.88g/t Au from 47.24m, including 7.62m @ 7.05g/t Au from 82.30m. The hole didn’t stop there. A further interval of 24.38m @ 1.15g/t Au from 204.22m, including 1.52m @ 3.66g/t Au from 216.41m, confirmed gold to 223m vertical depth, meaningfully below anything the 1988 drilling programme reached.
JWS26009 was drilled as a scissor hole to JWS26004, specifically to test near-surface continuity of the high-grade zone. It returned 74.67m @ 1.61g/t Au from 21.34m, including 15.24m @ 5.35g/t Au from 35.05m. Critically, high-grade mineralisation commences at just 18.25m vertical depth, confirming this is a shallow system accessible from near surface. The result adds 76.8m of continuity towards surface from JWS26004 and exceeds the nearby historic hole 133-88-25, which returned 15.2m @ 4.50g/t Au from 14.70m.
JWS26010 was the strike extension test. Collared 370m to the northeast of JWS26002, the hole tested surface quartz veining in a similar northeast-trending structure and returned intervals including 7.62m @ 0.72g/t Au from 38.10m. More significant than the grades at this location is what the hole demonstrates structurally: gold-bearing vein systems now extend well beyond the historic drilling footprint, with over 290m of untested ground now identified to the northeast.
All reported intervals are drilled lengths, not true thicknesses.
Earlier exceptional Hook Lake results from the 2026 programme established the grade and structural continuity benchmarks that the current batch of assays is now extending both at depth and to the northeast.
| Hole ID | From (m) | Interval (m) | Grade (g/t Au) | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JWS26009 | 21.34 | 74.67 | 1.61 | Broad shallow mineralised interval |
| Including | 35.05 | 15.24 | 5.35 | High-grade sub-interval from 18.25m vertical depth |
| JWS26008 | 0.00 | 41.15 | 1.06 | Gold confirmed from surface |
| JWS26008 | 47.24 | 51.82 | 1.88 | High-grade interval at depth |
| Including | 82.30 | 7.62 | 7.05 | Highest-grade intercept in this batch |
| JWS26008 | 204.22 | 24.38 | 1.15 | Gold confirmed to 223m vertical depth |
| Including | 216.41 | 1.52 | 3.66 | High-grade sub-interval at depth |
| JWS26010 | 38.10 | 7.62 | 0.72 | Strike extension 370m NE of JWS26002 |
| Including | 39.62 | 1.53 | 1.39 | High-grade sub-interval within extension hole |
Eric Sondergaard on what these results mean
Eric Sondergaard, Technical Advisor, Manhattan Gold Corporation Ltd
“These results materially strengthen the case for both scale and grade at Jaws. JWS26009 has delivered 15.24m at 5.35 g/t Au within a broad 74.67m mineralised interval close to surface, while JWS26008 has confirmed high-grade gold from surface and extended mineralisation to 223 vertical metres below surface. In parallel, drilling has expanded the footprint by more than 290m to the northeast, taking the drill-tested strike length at Jaws to 588m. We are now seeing grade, width and scale come together across a system that remains open at depth and along strike. The As-Sb-W pathfinder signature gives us an increasingly useful vector for targeting, and with 14 holes pending assay there is a strong pipeline of results ahead. Metallurgical test work and regional till sampling are also advancing in parallel. Jaws is developing into a substantially larger and more compelling gold system than the historic work suggested.”
Understanding orogenic gold systems — and why scale matters for investors
An orogenic gold system is a type of gold deposit that forms within shear zones, the deep structural fractures that develop when large sections of crust move past each other. Gold-bearing hydrothermal fluids migrate through these structures and deposit gold where conditions allow, typically producing high-grade zones within broader mineralised corridors. These systems tend to be vertically extensive, meaning they can persist to considerable depth, and they often continue along strike for hundreds of metres or more.
For investors, the practical implication is that a system which remains open at depth and along strike is one that can grow its resource envelope with continued drilling. Every new hole that intercepts gold below or beyond previous drilling expands the potential inventory.
That is precisely what the 2026 programme is demonstrating at Jaws. The system is now confirmed to 223m vertical depth with no lower boundary yet defined, and the 588m drill-tested strike length remains open to the northeast following JWS26010. The historic 1988 drilling programme produced a “foreign” estimate of 3.4Mt @ 2.38g/t Au (approximately 285,000oz Au) — it is important to note this estimate was not reported in accordance with the JORC Code 2012, a Competent Person has not verified it, and it cannot be treated as a current mineral resource. What is clear from the announcement is that the 2026 RC drilling programme, targeting shear structures with modern methods and guided by an arsenic-antimony-tungsten (As-Sb-W) pathfinder signature, is consistently returning thicker and higher-grade intervals than the 1988 work.
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Pipeline ahead — what comes next for Jaws and Hook Lake
The current results are one part of a much larger programme still working through the assay laboratory. Key near-term developments to watch include:
- 14 drillholes pending assay, representing a substantial pipeline of results expected in the near term
- Drilling returning to Jaws for follow-up targets identified from the current programme
- Metallurgical test work advancing, with samples selected and expected to be dispatched soon, setting the foundation for future technical studies
- Regional till sampling programme underway, building a geochemical dataset spanning Jaws strike extensions through to the Omega and Moonraker prospects to the east, guided by the As-Sb-W pathfinder signature, with results to be integrated with magnetic survey data
The broader Hook Lake portfolio provides additional context for the scale of the opportunity. The project covers 12 prospects across 665km² within the Rankin-Ennadai greenstone belt, which also hosts Agnico Eagle’s Meliadine mine. Beyond Jaws, the Quantum and Lotus prospects are untested by drilling but returned 16.75g/t and 8.01g/t Au respectively from surface sampling in 2025. The Spectre target is a polymetallic VMS system where historic drilling returned copper, zinc, silver, and gold results.
The Manhattan field programme at Hook Lake has progressed through successive phases of target generation, with till sampling, magnetic surveys, and RC drilling building a progressively clearer picture of the Rankin-Ennadai greenstone belt’s gold endowment.
The investment thesis at this stage is built on a system that is still opening up. With the Jaws strike length at 588m and growing, gold confirmed well below historic drilling depths, and a significant volume of pending assay data yet to be released, the picture at Hook Lake continues to evolve.
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