Battle North reports ‘high-grade intercepts’ at Bateman gold project

Battle North Gold (TSXV: BNAU; US-OTC: NBAUF) has released assay results from drilling at the McFinley and Pen zones at the company’s wholly owned Bateman gold project in northwestern Ontario’s Red Lake mining district, 265 km northeast of Winnipeg.

The two zones, which are located at a depth of less than 300 metres, form part of the “string of pearls” exploration targets near the project’s infrastructure, the company said.

Highlights from the McFinley zone include drill hole 84L-20-12, which intersected 1 metre grading 10.9 grams gold per tonne starting from 25 metres downhole.

Highlights from the Pen zone include drill hole 244L-20-05, which returned 1 metre grading 8.85 grams gold starting from a depth of 337 metres, including 1 metre grading 10.6 grams gold from 480 metres.

Other results from the Pen zone include drill hole 244L-20-02, which intersected 2 metres grading 34.01 grams gold starting from 172 metres downhole, including 1 metre grading 136 grams gold from 424 metres. Hole 244L-20-04 cut 3 metres grading 6.88 grams gold from 516 metres downhole, including 1 metre grading 24.1 grams from 518 metres.

“The high-grade intercepts encountered signal the upside potential of these zones, which remain open both across strike and at depth,”  president and chief executive George Ogilvie said in a statement. “We continue to believe that both the McFinley and Pen Zones, which are in close proximity to the Bateman gold project’s infrastructure, exhibit the potential to provide future incremental mill feed to augment the Project’s anticipated production profile.”

The company says it is on track to complete a resource estimate for the McFinley zone in the fourth quarter of 2020 and for the Pen zone in the first quarter of 2021.

The Bateman project contains indicated resources of 1.1 million tonnes grading 14.5 grams gold for 477,000 contained oz. gold. Inferred resources add 4.2 million tonnes grading 17 grams gold for 2.3 million oz. gold.

The company has now completed approximately 1,620 metres of drilling at McFinley at the 46 metre, 84 metre, and 122 metres levels, which targeted three distinct sub-zones of mineralization denoted as the B, C, and D zones.

Within these three zones multiple parallel zones have been identified through the drilling program and the reinterpretation of historical drilling, the company said.

About 2,600 metres of drilling have been conducted at the Pen zone from the 244 metre level to date. The drill program targeted high-titanium basaltic units that host gold mineralization and are also the host rock for gold mineralization at the Bateman gold project’s F2 gold zone.

On the day the results were released the company’s share price jumped 17% to close at $1.78.

At press time in Toronto, Battle North was trading at $1.78 per share within a 52-week trading range of 54¢ and $2.25.

The company has 129 million common shares outstanding for a $230-million market capitalization.