Great Bear Resources is well financed and drilling at one of the largest new gold discoveries in Canada

• District scale opportunity at Dixie with initial resource estimate awaited
• Two types of gold discoveries on the same property
• Very well-financed

What Great Bear Resources does:

Great Bear Resources Ltd (CVE:GBR) (OTCMKTS:GTBDF) struck a deal five years ago to acquire the Dixie mining claims in Ontario’s prolific Red Lake gold mining district and has been successfully advancing the project since.

Dixie consists of 9,140 hectares of contiguous claims that extend over 22 kilometres (km). The project lies around 25km southeast of the mining town of Red Lake and is accessible by a highway.

The property has played host to some eye-catching drill assays and multiple high-grade gold discoveries, namely at the Dixie Limb, Hinge, Bear-Rimini, Yuma, Auro, Yauro, Viggo and Gap zones. Six of these are now considered one zone that is hosted by the LP Fault zone, which is basically an 18 km long target that is being continuously explored by the company.

Great Bear now controls over 300 square kilometres of highly prospective ground across four projects in the district – they are the Pakwash property, the Dedee property and the Sobel property. As well as Dixie, these are all properties in which the firm is earning a 100% interest.

The renowned Red Lake gold district has historically produced around a whopping 30 million ounces of the yellow metal from 29 mines.

How is it doing: 

Great Bear Resources has continued its run of positive exploration results throughout 2020 and into 2021.

Beginning in January this year, Great Bear reported more drill results from the LP Fault, which continue to demonstrate the zone’s credentials, including high grade and bulk tonnage gold mineralization.

On February 8, the company released another round of drill results from three new holes at the LP Fault zone. Results from drill section 19925 included 13.4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold over 18.2 metres (m) from about 30m to 48m, including a high-grade core of 38.4 g/t gold over 5.5m from 36.5 to 42m in hole BR-253.

On March 11, it unveiled more high-grade drill assays from the LP Fault, which hailed from ten new holes on 225m of strike, Highlights included 29.17 g/t gold over 15.50m from a depth of 41.80 to 57.30m.

Meanwhile, a deeper hole intersected 5.29 g/t gold over 29m from a depth of 397.50 to 426.50m, including high-grade core of 62.13 g/t gold over 1.60m from 405.00 to 406.60m.

Great Bear said “strong continuity” of gold mineralization continues to be observed on a section-by-section basis, and vertically.

The company has said it is fully financed through 2022 after closing a ‘bought-deal’ private placement launched in July 2020, raising total gross proceeds of nearly C$70 million. The offering was oversubscribed, with 14 institutional investors from across North America, Australia and Europe participating.

The explorer has also increased this year’s exploration budget at the Dixie asset to C$45 million from C$20 million previously and aims to have at least 200 holes sunk by the end of 2021.

In all, the company aims to have drilled 600 holes at the site in total by year-end, for around 400,000 meters (m) with 175,000m this year. Currently, five rigs are active on-site, with additional drills to be added beginning in April, it said. About 80% of the planned drilling will target the LP Fault, while 15% will target the Hinge and Dixie Limb zones.

It is also worth noting that this month, Great Bear also reported it had boosted its board with the addition of experienced mining engineer Gilbert Lawson as a director. Lawson’s CV includes being the mine manager and project and business development manager at the Campbell Mine in Red Lake, which is now part of the Red Lake Mine Complex operated by Evolution Mining Ltd. He was also chief engineer and mien general manager at the Musselwhite mine in Ontario, now operated by Newmont.

What the broker says:

Following the March 11 announcement of the LP Fault drill results, broker Mackie repeated a ‘Speculative Buy’ rating on the stock while Stifel GMP also tagged the exploration group with the same recommendation.

“Overall, we believe the results are, on balance, excellent and highlight the potential of the Dixie Project as a world-class deposit which is in line with our investment thesis,” said Mackie analyst Adam Schatzker, who targets C$36 a share.

“We are very keen to see the results that the wedge drilling will produce as Great Bear tests the deeper portions of both the Hinge and Limb zones – DL-064 will provide the platform from which that drilling will commence,” he said.

“We continue to have confidence that the mineralized inventory at the Dixie Project will be in line with our estimate of 9.6 million ounces,” he added.

“If the LP Fault zone is similar to other fault hosted, Archean gold deposits, it is not unreasonable to expect that the mineralization will continue well below the 500 m level – this represents upside that has yet to be tested or included in our valuation.”

Meanwhile, analysts at Stifel said the results “continue to indicate a strong continuity and consistency in gold mineralization vertically within drill sections and horizontally on a section by section basis across drill holes”.

They said: “This high-grade consistency underpins our thesis that Dixie Project presents a rare asset that can provide development and operating optionality, a valuable and attractive aspect of any project for any miner looking to advance a project towards production. Our model is currently based on resource potential of 12Moz at the Dixie Project, but we see substantial potential for additional upside.”

Canaccord Genuity also came out with a repeated ‘Speculative Buy’ stance on the shares following the drill results. The broker also repeated its C$23.5 price target.

“Ongoing drilling along the LP Fault continues to highlight a broad, multi-kilometer mineralized gold footprint. This broader footprint is composed of higher grade sub-zones, for which ongoing backfill drilling continues to illustrate the continuity of mineralization and depth potential. We continue to view the LP Fault Zone as an open pit(s) exploration target, with longer-term underground potential,” the broker’s analysts said.

Inflection points:

• More exploration results
• A maiden resource estimate
• Gold price moves

What the boss says:

In the company’s most recent Proactive interview, Great Bear chief executive Chris Taylor said: “The more we drill at the Dixie project, the more gold we find. We see great continuity of the grades, big high-grade panels in the LP Fault zone. It’s incredible and it just keeps coming. It’s literally the gift that keeps on giving.”

Contact Giles at [email protected]

Story by ProactiveInvestors