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 kilometers (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.

Highlight results have included 38.4 g/t gold over 5.5m from 36.5 to 42m depth in one hole and 29.17 g/t gold over 15.50 m from a depth of 41.80 to 57.30m.

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 405m to 406.60m.

In March, Great Bear noted that deep holes had doubled the drill-confirmed vertical extent of the significant LP Fault target.

And on April 22, the company posted assays from 13 holes at the LP Fault, which, it noted, remains open in all directions, and where the area of continuous gold mineralization has been extended by about 25% by drilling this year alone.

Two ‘step-down’ holes extended mineralization by over 100m below previous drilling, with assays showing 11.18 grams per ton (g/t) gold over 6.75m from 524.2m to 530.95m depth in one hole, while infill drilling within 75m and 100m in previously undrilled gaps in the zone also continued to deliver high-grade and bulk-tonnage gold intercepts, the firm said.

In May, the company reported results from its ongoing $45 million exploration program at the Dixie project. Highlights include new drill holes intersecting the LP Fault zone from around 20 to 500m vertical depth along 2.2 kilometers of strike length. 

The drill holes were also located above previous drilling, to extend gold mineralization towards surface, and within 75 to 100m of previously undrilled gaps in the zone. 

Two drill holes are step-ups that extend gold mineralization by more than 75m above previous drilling to the near-surface, while the company also highlighted new bulk-tonnage intercepts that included 3.07 g/t of gold over 35.6m from 117 to 152.6m downhole in drill hole BR-320, 1.11 g/t gold over 91.6m from 349.5 to 441.1m downhole in drill hole BR-285, and 1.00 g/t gold over 91.4m from 473.6 to 565m downhole in drill hole BR-286.

Great Bear has released nearly 300 drill hole results from the LP Fault and anticipates at least 117 more will be completed by the end of 2021, for a total of at least 400 holes.

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 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 also increased the exploration budget at Dixie to C$45 million from C$20 million previously.

In all, the company aims to have drilled 600 holes at the site in total by the end of 2021, for around 400,000 meters (m) with 175,000m sunk in 2021.

About 80% of the planned drilling will target the LP Fault, while 15% will target the Hinge and Dixie Limb zones.

What the broker says:

On May 19, Research Capital reiterated its Speculative Buy rating on Great Bear with a $36 price target soon after the company announced the results of the 17 drill holes from the LP Fault zone.

The firm cited the fact that the holes were drilled both above previous intercepts and within 75m to 100m gaps in previous drilling, providing for the first time publicly detailed information on the first high-grade domain.

“We think investors will be able to better understand the potential of the deposit which we believe the market is undervaluing,” Research Capital wrote.

Inflection points:

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

What the boss says:

“We are now entering the final months of near-surface maiden mineral resource estimation drilling of the central LP Fault zone, and are modeling 17 distinct high-grade gold domains within the broader LP Fault gold mineralized system,” CEO Chris Taylor said in a statement.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Follow him on Twitter @PatrickMGraham

Story by ProactiveInvestors