Athena Gold Corporation provided an exploration update from its ongoing maiden drilling campaign at its Laird Lake project in Ontario?s Red Lake Gold District. The fully-funded diamond-drilling program commenced earlier this month, with the first hole targeting the G1 geophysical anomaly on the western portion of the project. The hole was successfully drilled to its target depth of 336 m, intersecting broad zones of prospective sulfide mineralization.
Core logging from the ongoing drill program has successfully identified a shallow, broad approximately 179 m wide (108-287 m; true width is unknown) package of variably mineralized banded iron formation and mafic volcanic rocks within the Balmer Formation. Zones of increased pyrrhotite-pyrite-chalcopyrite mineralization are generally associated with higher degrees of silica-diopside-garnet-biotite alteration and intense folding. In the Red Lake camp, structurally complex, sulphide-replaced banded iron formations are historically known to be host rocks for high-grade gold deposits, such as the Fork deposit at West Red Lake Gold?s Madsen mine, located approximately 10 km east of Laird Lake.
At the Fork deposit, gold mineralization occurs in deformed quartz-sulphide veins and local replacement-style disseminations within strongly altered iron formation, mafic and ultramafic rocks, with accessory pyrrhotite, pyrite, and chalcopyrite in vein selvedges and alteration envelopes. At Laird Lake, intersecting this sulfide mineralized banded iron formation target exactly where historical SkyTEM magnetic and electromagnetic data predicted provides a strong validation of the Company's geological model. Core from the initial hole is currently being prepared for assaying.
The G1 anomaly has never been drilled and there are no historically documented gold occurrences or significant work filed in the area. During the 2025 field program, Athena located a series of long (locally greater than 100 m) undocumented historical trenches throughout the area and reconnaissance sampling returned elevated gold within banded iron formation (0.7 g/t Au). Athena believes that the G1 area represents a new target area for the project, with LL-26-001 being the first drill hole to test it.
The re-interpreted SkyTEM data suggests the targeted conductor has a strike length of approximately 1,700 m and remains open along strike and at depth. Core from hole LL-26-001 (116 m) from the G1 anomaly contains minerals within banded iron formation. Possible visible gold (red circles) within banded iron formation is associated with a quartz-pyrite vein (214.8 m).
The larger drill rig being brought to site will be testing the deeper, high-priority targets planned on the east side of Laird Lake which include Balmer Assemblage: High-priority anomalies situated within the prospective mafic and ultramafic assemblage that is the dominant host to the gold deposits in the district, and Confederation Assemblage: Disseminated mineralization within the Confederation rocks, highlighted by the newly discovered Rigby showing identified during this past summer's field program.
