Metal Hawk Drills for Depth on 9m at 12.3g/t Numbat Gold Lode Extensions

RC drilling resumes at Thylacine as Metal Hawk chases high-grade Numbat lode extensions

Metal Hawk Limited (ASX: MHK) has mobilised an RC rig to its Leinster South Project this week to recommence drilling at the Thylacine prospect, following up the project’s best-ever gold intercept. The campaign will consist of up to ten RC holes designed to test the high-grade Numbat lode down plunge and along strike, backed by a scheduled diamond program in November and up to $175,000 in co-funding from the WA Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS).

Key highlights from the announcement:

• RC rig mobilising to Leinster South this week
• Up to 10 RC holes targeting down-plunge and along-strike extensions of the Numbat lode
• Follow-up to the project’s best-ever intercept: 9m @ 12.3g/t Au from 70m (including 5m @ 20.7g/t Au from 72m) in hole 26LSRC077, announced 25 August 2026
• Diamond program scheduled to commence November 2026
• Up to $175,000 in EIS co-funding awarded by the WA Government to support diamond drilling

Why the Numbat lode intercept matters

For investors unfamiliar with exploration terminology, “9m @ 12.3g/t Au” means the drill hole passed through nine metres of rock grading an average of 12.3 grams of gold per tonne. Multiply the grade by the width and you get the gold content of that intercept — the higher either number, the more significant the result. This intercept, which includes a sharper high-grade core of 5m @ 20.7g/t Au, is a strong shallow result by any measure.

The original announcement of shallow high-grade gold at Leinster South, released 25 August 2026, established 26LSRC077 as the project’s best-ever intercept and set the geological context that the current RC program is now systematically following up.

RC drilling — Reverse Circulation drilling — is a standard exploration method that forces rock chips to the surface through the drill rod, allowing rapid sampling across depth. It is faster and cheaper than diamond drilling, making it the logical first tool for testing extensions of a known target.

The phrase “open at depth and along strike” is worth understanding. It means the mineralisation was not closed off at the edges of the drill hole — the gold system continues in at least two directions beyond what has been tested. For early-stage exploration, an open-ended system is exactly what you want to see, because it means the target is still growing rather than fully defined.

The WA Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme provides co-funding for qualifying exploration programs. Being awarded up to $175,000 in EIS funding is a form of third-party validation that the project meets the government’s merit criteria, and it directly reduces the company’s cash outlay for the diamond program.

High-grade, shallow, open-ended gold systems on the Agnew-Wiluna Greenstone Belt — a proven gold address — are the kind of targets that attract serious exploration capital. That combination is what makes the Numbat lode worth watching closely.

Drilling the Numbat system — what the data shows and what comes next

The case for depth continuity

The geological case for the Numbat lode continuing at depth rests on diamond drill hole LSD003, completed in late 2025, which returned 1.7m @ 7.7g/t Au from 338.65m (including 1m @ 12.4g/t Au from 339m) within a sheeted quartz vein. Structural logging of the drill core confirmed this vein sits within the same mineralised structure as the Numbat lode.

That intercept places mineralisation approximately 240m down-dip from the high-grade hit in 26LSRC077, indicating the system is coherent and continuous across a meaningful vertical extent. For investors, that depth range suggests this is not a shallow, isolated lens — it is a gold system with vertical persistence that warrants systematic testing.

What the next RC program will target

The upcoming holes are designed to test three distinct objectives:

1. The down-plunge extension of the Numbat high-grade shoot, interpreted to plunge northeasterly
2. Along-strike extensions of the Numbat lode
3. Other potential northeasterly plunging shoots identified along the broader Thylacine gold system

Two holes from the recent program — 26LSRC080 and 26LSRC081 — targeted hanging wall structures east of the Numbat lode and were not drilled deep enough to test the lode itself. The company is considering re-entering hole 26LSRC081 with the diamond rig to test the Numbat lode’s structural position at depth. Two holes drilled at the Tysons prospect (26LSRC082 and 26LSRC083) returned no significant results.

Will Belbin, Managing Director

“With the RC rig due to arrive on site later this week, we look forward to following up the down plunge and along strike extensions of the Numbat lode from our 9m @ 12.3g/t gold intercept in 26LSRC077. Deep diamond drilling completed last year confirms the same mineralised structure continues to at least 250 metres below surface, which increases our confidence that this is a coherent, continuous gold system at depth. We’ve also scheduled a diamond rig for November to follow the RC program and test the Numbat lode’s structural position at depth. We will be utilising up to $175,000 of co-funding from the WA Government to support this work program. From both drilling campaigns we can expect a much clearer picture of this system’s scale.”

Drill program summary — Thylacine RC holes

The table below summarises the drillhole collars for the Thylacine holes completed during the 2026 program, drawn from Table 1 of the announcement.

Leinster South — a high-grade project in a proven gold address

The Leinster South Project covers more than 430km² of tenements situated between 10km and 40km south of Leinster in Western Australia, within the Agnew-Wiluna Greenstone Belt. The project sits on the southeastern limb of the Lawlers Anticline — the same geological corridor that hosts the Agnew-Lawlers operating gold mines (15–25km to the northwest) and Thunderbox (25km to the east).

Metal Hawk holds the project 100% owned, with no joint venture dilution of any upside. Maiden drilling at Leinster South began only in mid-2025, confirming high-grade gold mineralisation in bedrock across multiple prospects including Siberian Tiger, Thylacine, and Tysons. Limited historical work on the tenements means systematic modern exploration has only just begun, leaving substantial ground untested.

The near-term catalysts are clear: RC results from the current program, diamond drilling commencing November 2026, and EIS co-funding reducing the cash cost of that deeper testing. Taken together, both programs are expected to materially define the scale of the Numbat system, providing investors with a much clearer picture of what this high-grade target could represent.

Don’t Miss the Next ASX Gold Breakout

Get FREE breaking ASX gold news delivered to your inbox within minutes of release, complete with in-depth analysis. Join 30,000+ subscribers already ahead of the market. Click the “Free Alerts” button at Discovery Alert to start receiving alerts the moment high-grade gold news like this hits the ASX.