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 km 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 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.

And 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.

On March 16, the company delivered a string of high-grade gold results from the LP Fault zone. Drill results from the northwest portion of the LP Fault included intersections of 25 g/t gold over 4.3m, including a high-grade core of 197 g/t over 0.5m. 

Later that month, Great Bear reported more drill success from its flagship Dixie project, revealing that deep holes had doubled the drill-confirmed vertical extent of the significant LP Fault target. Three new step-down holes were sunk along 500m of strike length and all hit the continuation of the LP Fault host rocks and gold mineralization at depths of between 700 and 820 vertical metres,

In early April, Great Bear said a sixth rig is being added to the Dixie project to accelerate the 2021 drill program and will continue to infill as well as expand on the three main gold zones, including the Hinge, Dixie Limb and LP Fault zones. The company added that its primary focus remains infill and expansion drilling of the LP Fault zone at 25-75 meter centers. 

However, it said there remain large undrilled gaps of 100-400m between existing drill holes in several areas of the LP Fault, and within the other Dixie project gold zones where step-out and step-down drilling have already successfully expanded the zones, all of which remain open to extension.

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:

On April 7, Research Capital Corporation reiterated Great Bear as a ‘Speculative Buy’ with a $36 a share price-target after the gold explorer added a sixth drill rig at its Dixie project.

“This comes as no surprise as the company indicated that it will be increasing the number of drill rigs to carry out its aggressive exploration program,” said Research Capital, formerly called Mackie Research. “We are pleased to see Great bear continuing to focus on expanding its drill program, especially in areas that we have not considered in our 9.6 million ounce mineralized inventory estimate.”

The analyst firm added: “For the LP Fault zone, we have only assumed open-pittable material in our estimate – any material identified at depth with economic potential represents upside … At the Limb zone, we have assumed a depth of 500 m, assuming an all underground mineable deposit.”

Great Bear’s stock currently trades around $15.60 a share in Canada and around $12.45 a share in New York. 

Inflection points:

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

What the boss says:

“We drilled below the most weakly mineralized segment of the LP Fault with our first deep holes, and discovered better gold mineralization at depth,” noted CEO Chris Taylor, after the gold explorer reported more drill success at the Dixie project.

“After 270 drill holes, we have yet to find the limits of the LP Fault’s gold mineralization. Mesothermal gold systems of this type, particularly in the Red Lake area, can extend vertically over kilometres.”

Contact the author: [email protected]

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Story by ProactiveInvestors

Source: http://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/924760/great-bear-resources-is-well-financed-and-drilling-at-one-of-the-largest-new-gold-discoveries-in-canada-924760.html