Special Report: Hawkstone has wrapped up its 2020 field season drilling at the Lone Pine gold project in Idaho, confirming its high grade nature and excellent geological continuity.
Top results from the final four diamond holes are 1.91m grading 12.93 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from a depth of 106.9m and 0.86m at 10.39g/t gold from 153.71m, complementing earlier high-grade hits from the Lone Pine quartz vein.
Gold mineralisation has now been traced over 600m with Hawkstone Mining (ASX:HWK) saying that it remains open at depth and along strike to the northeast and southwest.
Results from the company’s maiden drilling at Lone Pine are particularly interesting when taken in the context of Revival Gold recently announcing that the nearby Beartrack Mine has a 2.39 million oz gold resource and planned production of 300,000oz per annum.
Hawkstone is also planning to drill test the King Solomon priority target in the 2021 field season.
“We are very pleased with the results from the 2020 field season drilling completed at the Lone Pine Gold Project,” managing director Paul Lloyd said.
“Exploration has demonstrated the presence of high-grade gold mineralisation and the excellent geological continuity of the Lone Pine vein zone providing the impetus to continue with further drilling at Lone Pine and also the highly prospective King Solomon mineralised zone 900m to the southeast.
“The knowledge acquired from the drilling challenges encountered throughout the 2020 program will greatly assist with the program planning and execution heading into the 2021 field season.”
Lone Pine gold drilling
The final four holes confirm that all 11 diamond holes have intersected the mineralised zone, confirming the steeply dipping to sub-vertical nature of the structure.
Top hits from the first seven holes include 1.22m grading 17.02 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 38.43m, 0.45m at 19.6g/t gold from 99.3m and 2.63m at 7.06g/t gold from 63.75m.
Lone Pine was acquired by Hawkstone in February and has a non-JORC resource of 71,178oz of gold grading over 18g/t gold that is not recognised by the ASX.
However, the recent drilling could help bring this resource up to JORC standards.
Current and future activity
Hawkstone is currently continuing due diligence at the Devil’s Canyon gold project in Nevada where it is awaiting assay results for two rock chip sampling programs.
Assays are also pending for additional sampling and regional work completed at Lone Pine along with tertiary drainage sampling at the Western Desert gold-copper project in Utah.
The company has applied to the US Forestry Department for approval of drill sites at both Lone Pine (within unpatented claims) and King Solomon.
Additionally, planning is underway for additional holes within the patented claims at Lone Pine with drill contractors being arranged to ensure that drilling starts once access is possible.
Drilling at Lone Pine will focus on depth and strike extensions to the mineralised vein whilst the first pass drilling at King Solomon will be carried out proximal to old workings and historical reverse circulation drilling.
Hawkstone also plans to carry out an airborne magnetic geophysical survey across Lone Pine in 2021.
This article was developed in collaboration with Hawkstone Mining, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.