Metal Hawk Hits 4m at 12.5g/t Gold in New Shear Style as Diamond Rigs Near
Key Takeaways
- Hole 26LSRC075 returned 4m @ 12.5g/t Au from 43m, including 2m @ 23.0g/t Au, after 1m resplitting lifted gram-metres from about 29 to 50.
- The gold sits in foliated mafic rock with no quartz veining, which Metal Hawk interprets as a new shear-hosted style at Leinster South.
- RC drilling at Thylacine south is complete at 10 holes for 1,642m, with assays due in approximately six weeks.
- Diamond drilling starts in November to deliver oriented core defining the Numbat lode's orientation, plunge and true width.
- No resource estimate has been disclosed and true widths remain unknown, so the broader system is still an interpretation.
High-grade gold confirmed in Numbat shear as RC drilling wraps up at Thylacine
Metal Hawk Limited (ASX: MHK) has completed reverse circulation (RC) drilling at the Thylacine south zone of its 100% owned Leinster South Project, in the Agnew-Lawlers region of Western Australia. RC drilling fires a hammer through rock and returns chips to the surface for sampling.
The company also reported 1m resplit assays from hole 26LSRC075 of 4m @ 12.5g/t Au from 43m, including 2m @ 23.0g/t Au from 44m, which it interprets as a new style of shear-hosted gold at the Numbat lode.
Key points from the 8 October 2026 announcement:
- RC drilling finished at Thylacine south: 10 holes (26LSRC084 to 26LSRC093) for 1,642m
- Assays from those holes are expected in approximately six weeks
- Hole 26LSRC075 returned high-grade gold from foliated mafic rocks with no quartz veining
- The result points to a potentially larger mineralised system around the high-grade Numbat lode
- Diamond drilling is scheduled to commence in November
For investors, gold hosted in the shear itself, and not only in quartz veins, suggests the Numbat lode may be part of something bigger than a single vein. That is an interpretation, not a confirmed outcome.
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A new style of shear-hosted mineralisation at Leinster South
A shear is a zone where rock has been deformed and sheared by tectonic movement. Gold found in the sheared host rock is different from gold found in quartz veins.
What 26LSRC075 revealed
Hole 26LSRC075 was drilled in July 2026, approximately 40m southwest of Numbat discovery hole 26LSRC077. The gold sits within foliated mafic rocks with no quartz veining.
That matters because the majority of high-grade gold at Leinster South to date has been associated with quartz veining. The company considers the result an important step in its understanding of the Thylacine south zone.
The hole was first sampled as 4m composites, then mineralised intervals were resplit and assayed as 1m samples by PhotonAssay™. The difference was large:
| Sampling | Interval | Grade | Gram-metres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4m composites | 8m from 40m | **3.6g/t Au** | approx. **29** |
| 1m resplits | 4m from 43m | **12.5g/t Au** | approx. **50** |
Gram-metres multiply grade by interval length, giving a single number that reflects both. The resplit lifted that figure significantly, which shows the upside of 1m sampling. All intercepts are downhole widths, and true width is not known.
Numbat discovery context
The Numbat lode was identified in hole 26LSRC077, which returned 9m @ 12.3g/t Au from 70m, including 5m @ 20.7g/t Au from 72m (ASX announcement of 25 August 2026). The RC program just completed targeted along strike and down dip of that intercept.
The Numbat discovery sits within a broader run of shallow high-grade gold intercepts at Leinster South, and the shear-hosted result in 26LSRC075 adds a different style of mineralisation to that earlier picture.
Will Belbin, Managing Director
“…The new high-grade results from hole 26LSRC075 support our view that the Numbat lode is associated with a significant broader mineralised system at Thylacine and importantly, the intersection is interpreted to represent a new, shear-hosted style of mineralisation at Leinster South.”
Why 1m sampling and PhotonAssay matter
RC drilling often collects composite samples, which blend several metres of rock into one sample. A narrow high-grade zone can be diluted by the barren rock around it.
Resplitting the retained material at 1m isolates those narrow zones. PhotonAssay™ analyses a sample approximately ten times larger than a conventional 50g fire assay charge.
A larger sample generally reduces the risk of understating gold that occurs unevenly through the rock. For you as an investor, that suggests earlier composite results may have been conservative for some intervals, though that depends on what later results show.
Metal Hawk will continue to resplit anomalous composite intervals at 1m for PhotonAssay™ analysis. The source notes that where 1m resplit results exist, they supersede the earlier composite results for the same intervals.
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Next steps: assays in six weeks and diamond drilling in November
The near-term catalysts are clear:
- RC assays from the 10 holes are expected in approximately six weeks
- Diamond drilling is scheduled to commence at Thylacine south in November, following receipt of assays
- Follow-up drilling will be targeted using the information from oriented core
Diamond drilling extracts solid core rather than chips. RC chips cannot show the orientation of the structures that control the gold, so core is needed to fill that gap.
The company says it will provide oriented core through the Numbat lode and shear zone to determine the orientation and geometry of the high-grade mineralisation, including its interpreted plunge, and the true width of mineralised intervals. Core will also allow detailed structural and petrographic study of the shear-hosted gold, and will test the system below the depth of the RC drilling.
Will Belbin, Managing Director
“Diamond drilling in November will give us oriented core through the Numbat lode and the host shear, which is critical to understanding the orientation of the high-grade shoots and how far this system extends…”
The announcement does not disclose a resource estimate or any timeline beyond those above.
About the Leinster South Project
- The project area covers more than 430km², between 10km and 40km south of Leinster
- Limited historical exploration has been conducted on the tenements
- The project sits on the Agnew-Wiluna Greenstone Belt
- Metal Hawk identified high-grade surface gold at the Siberian Tiger prospect in August 2024, with Thylacine and Tysons identified through subsequent exploration
- The company’s maiden drilling at Leinster South began in mid-2025
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