Drilling at Damoti was part of a 32,500m drilling programme in 2018.

Nighthawk has been working to define and build ounces at satellite deposits around its 2.6Moz Colomac gold project. It expects to drill a similar amount in 2019 with a view to publishing a resource update in 2020, president and CEO Michael Byron told Mining Journal.

"The challenge is finding enough ounces and grade. We hope to breach the 3Moz resource threshold with the next update that we think will be the trigger point for a strategic [investor] and show growth beyond that and dovetail in the satellite deposits that were not part of the story before," he said.

At Colomac, the company reported an inferred mineral resource estimate of 50.3Mt at an average grade of 1.62g/t gold for 2.6Moz Au in June 2018, but with half of the sill yet to explore, it expects to increase this.

Damoti, which already has a decline into the deposit, is one of several satellite deposits Nighthawk is exploring that could supply high-grade feed material to an eventual processing plant at Colomac. "Damoti is a small, rich deposit within 75m of surface that doesn't warrant development on its own, but that could have synergies with Colomac. The drilling plan is to find more mineralisation outside the central plug of gold," Byron said.

The company is working on heap leach metallurgical testwork with 9% shareholder Kinross Gold, benefitting from its experience of successfully operating heap leach processing in Arctic conditions at its Fort Knox mine in Alaska.