Manhattan Gold (ASX:MHC) commences Hook Lake drilling campaign in Nunavut

Manhattan Gold has commenced drilling at its Hook Lake Project in Nunavut, Canada, with the company commencing its most comprehensive exploration program at the project in more than 30 years.

The 2026 work program includes a maiden 4,000m reverse circulation drilling campaign together with surface exploration and airborne geophysical activities across multiple gold and polymetallic targets within the 665km² project area.

Highlights

• Maiden 4,000m reverse circulation drilling program underway across 5 targets.
• First modern drilling at the project in more than 30 years.
• At Jaws, drilling will confirm historic drilling results and assess strike and depth extension targets associated with the historical foreign estimate of 3.4Mt @ 2.38g/t Au (~285,000oz Au), which is not reported in accordance with the JORC Code 2012.
• Maiden drilling planned at the Quantum and Lotus gold silver vein systems identified during 2025 exploration activities.
• Drilling will also test the Spectre copper zinc gold silver massive sulphide occurrence and structural targets within the Omega banded iron formation.
• Project scale till sampling, channel sampling, rock sampling and airborne magnetic surveying form part of the 2026 exploration program.

The Hook Lake Project comprises 12 separate prospects covering a total of 665km² within the underexplored Rankin Ennadai greenstone belt, the same greenstone belt which hosts Agnico Eagle’s Meliadine mine and BG Gold’s Vickers deposit.

The most advanced target within the project is Jaws, where diamond drilling conducted during the late 1980s defined a historical foreign estimate of 3.4Mt @ 2.38g/t Au (~285,000oz Au), which Manhattan notes is not reported in accordance with the JORC Code 2012.

At Jaws, drilling will confirm historic drilling results and assess strike and depth extension targets, with previous drill testing completed to a maximum of approximately 190m vertical depth and the company stating the target remains open in all directions, including down plunge and dip.

The program also includes infill drilling within 543m of historic drilling where gold mineralisation was intercepted, testing historic induced polarisation anomalies displaying signatures comparable to Jaws, and drilling near deposit strike extensions to the northeast and southwest to build on the historic footprint with a strike length potential of 3.3km.

The program also includes drilling at Spectre to test continuity of copper zinc gold silver bearing massive sulphide lenses previously drilled in 1974.

Quantum and Lotus, which returned surface sampling results of 16.75g/t Au and 1,485g/t Ag at Quantum, and 8.01g/t Au and 2,660g/t Ag at Lotus during 2025 exploration activities, will receive their first drill testing.

At Omega, drilling will test structural and lithology contact targets within the banded iron formation, with reverse circulation chips to be used to assess geology, geochemistry and structure.

Regional exploration activities include a project scale till sampling program across the Vesper Jaws Omega region to assess potential gold and polymetallic mineralisation beneath shallow glacial cover.

Channel and rock sampling will be completed across recently acquired mineral claims, including investigation of historic channel sampling results of 5.75g/t Au over 1.5m within a 7.7m zone, with peak zones of 17.14g/t Au over 0.3m, while airborne magnetic surveying has restarted with 2 planes and has been expanded to include the mineral claims staked during April 2026.

Manhattan Gold Technical Advisor Eric Sondergaard said,

“The Hook Lake Project will see more exploration work this year than at any time in the past 30 years, a level of attention we believe is warranted given its potential to become Nunavut’s next major gold district. Manhattan is combining modern geophysics, project scale sampling and systematic target generation to unlock value across the portfolio, particularly in areas where mineralisation may have gone undiscovered below cover.”

Results of the till sampling survey will be integrated with structural targets generated by ModelEarth utilising the airborne magnetic data to support target generation across the Hook Lake Project.

These will provide targets for follow up exploration work, which may include further infill till sampling, surface channel and or rock sampling, and drill testing targets where multiple lines of evidence are present.

This work will complement the drilling and regional exploration activities being undertaken across the project during the 2026 field season.

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