Great Bear rears up high as White Cliff reveals more high-grade rock chips

Further rock chip assays have uncovered three additional IOCG mineralised structures and an epithermal system
Coyote is a zone of intense epithermal alteration and veining with assays of up to 4g/t gold, 12.1% copper and 62.5g/t silver
White Cliff will now focus on correlating results from an aerial MT survey with known outcropping structures and sample sites

Special Report: White Cliff Minerals’ Great Bear project is proving to be aptly named after further assays of rock chip samples confirmed widespread and high-grade copper, gold and silver associated with multiple IOCG and epithermal systems.

Assays returned from another four project areas reinforced the potential for the underexplored project to host multiple occurrences of mineralisation.

White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) notes that at the Coyote area about 5km east of the Phoenix district, separate assays returning up to 17.4g/t gold, 12.1% copper and 62.5g/t silver uncovered an outcropping 440m by 195m zone of intense epithermal alteration and veining.

Rock chip sampling from the maiden field program at Great Bear also uncovered an additional three IOCG-mineralised structures.

At Cougar, a single grab sample result returned 13.5% copper, 1.14g/t gold and 97.4g/t silver from an area of intense outcropping IOCG alteration about 3.4km south-east of Viper along the regional scale Contact Lake structural zone.

Meanwhile, initial sampling and mapping at Viper identified an IOCG style phyllic alteration zone that is adjacent to the historical K2 occurrence, with assays returning high-grade silver of up to 102g/t over a 75m north-south strike.

Over at the Payback area, 13km south of Phoenix, four massive sulphide rock chips returned up to 42.2% copper and 716g/t silver.

White, Cliff, Minerals, ASX, WCN, Great, Bear, Lake, Rock, Chip, Samples, IOCG — Map of 2024 rock chip sample areas. Pic: White Cliff Minerals

Great Bear scale becoming clearer

“These results are further examples of the type of exceptional results we are now seeing from the Great Bear project,” managing director Troy Whittaker said.

“As the exploration programme expanded outwards from the central airstrip ‘camp zone’, the scale of the opportunity we have before us can now be seen. Consistent and numerous high-grade copper, gold and silver occurrences continue to demonstrate immense potential within the broader Great Bear region.

“To have such consistently high-grade copper and precious metal results, along significantly expanding strike lengths within such a small percentage of the overall area (less than 15km north-south and 5km east-west) is truly exciting.

“We now fully understand for the first time the significance of historical statements regarding Great Bear from the Canadian Mines Department that this area is the most prospective area in Canada to host multiple large IOCG style deposits.”

The 2,900km2 Great Bear Lake project sits within the highly prospective Great Bear magmatic zone and saw little modern exploration despite being regarded by previous miners and explorers – and the Northwest Territories Geosciences Office – as having the highest potential for IOCG-U mineralisation in Canada.

Next steps

Whittaker said the company will now focus on correlating results from an aerial MT survey with known outcropping structures and sample sites to facilitate planning for the second phase of work at the project.

“Dozens more highly prospective targets identified are still to be sampled due to the significant size of the company’s 2,900km2 licence area.”

This article was developed in collaboration with White Cliff Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.