Amaroq wraps up Nanoq drilling as early tests show ore could be processed at Nalunaq
Icelandic mining company Amaroq has finished this year’s drilling at its Nanoq gold project in South Greenland and says initial laboratory tests indicate ore from the site is amenable to processing at its Nalunaq mine, about 130 kilometers to the southwest.
The company, which is listed in London and Reykjavík, announced the results on Thursday along with the start of construction on a beach landing facility and a starter access track at Nanoq. It said the work provides the basis for bulk sampling Nanoq ore at Nalunaq, running a larger test batch through the plant, toward the end of 2027 or into 2028.
The 2026 program consisted of 4,728.9 meters of core drilling across 33 holes. It focused on infill drilling in the project’s Central Zone, which Amaroq intends to use as the basis for a maiden mineral resource estimate, along with step-out drilling to the south and at the West 1 target.
Visible gold and copper sulfides, similar to those found in 2024 and 2025, were observed in about 88 percent of the holes, the company said. Assay results, which will show the actual gold grades, have not yet been received. Amaroq said it will publish them as they come in.
“The completion of this year’s drilling at Nanoq marks another important step in advancing the project towards a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate,” CEO Eldur Ólafsson said in a statement. “We have significantly increased the geological information across the Central Zone, while continuing to test the broader potential of the system to the south and at West 1.”
Initial metallurgical test work by SGS Lakefield indicates that Nanoq mineralization can be processed at the Nalunaq plant, with overall gold recoveries of approximately 97 to 99 percent using the existing flowsheet. James Gilbertson, Amaroq’s vice president of exploration, reviewed the results, which the company describes as provisional.
“The metallurgical results are also very encouraging, demonstrating strong gold recoveries using a flowsheet consistent with that at Nalunaq,” Ólafsson said. “This supports our strategy of evaluating Nanoq as a future source of material for processing at Nalunaq.”
The test figures come from laboratory samples. Nalunaq’s plant recovered 63 percent of its gold in the first half of 2026, when it was running a gravity-only circuit, according to Amaroq’s second-quarter results. A flotation circuit that produced its first concentrate in June is expected to lift recovery to around 90 to 95 percent.
Construction has started on a beach landing facility at Nanoq and a starter access track to the mineralized area. Amaroq said the limited site infrastructure will improve access and support potential bulk sampling and future resource drilling.
“Together with the new infrastructure, these results provide the basis for bulk sampling Nanoq ore at Nalunaq towards the end of 2027 or into 2028 and further resource and exploration drilling, as we continue to de-risk Nanoq’s full development potential,” Ólafsson said.
Nanoq sits on the eastern flank of the Nanortalik Gold Belt and hosts several gold-bearing quartz vein systems. Last year, Amaroq drilled 4,807 meters in 27 holes across about 600 meters of the Central Zone, returning shallow high-grade intersections that included 187.4 grams of gold per tonne over 1.5 meters and 19.6 grams per tonne over 4.9 meters. Mapping has since extended the Central Zone’s interpreted strike to roughly 1.5 kilometers and identified the parallel West 1 zone about 500 meters to the west.
Amaroq owns Nalunaq outright. The mine produced roughly 9,000 ounces of gold in the first half of the year, and the company has guided for 25,000 to 35,000 ounces in 2026.
