Great Bear Resources (TSXV: GBR; US-OTC: GTBAF) has announced a new, high-grade gold discovery named the Midwest zone at its cornerstone Dixie project in northwest Ontario’s fabled Red Lake district.
The Midwest zone is about 275 metres northwest of the Hinge zone and 250 metres south of the Dixie Limb zone.
The discovery hole returned 20.27 grams gold per tonne over 1.75 metres, starting from a depth of 812.35 metres.
In total, the mineralized interval entailed 5.69 grams gold per tonne over 7.05 metres, starting from 809.95 metres depth, Great Bear president and CEO Chris Taylor tells The Northern Miner in an interview.
Great Bear’s geological team orients analysts at one of the few outcrops on the LP Fault at Dixie. Photo by Henry Lazenby.
Taylor said the limited drilling and data to date suggested additional basalt-basalt contacts may occur southwest of the LP Fault zone, providing the company with yet another set of highly prospective drill targets.
To date, the most significant discovery at Dixie has been the high-grade LP Fault zone, where drilling has thus far identified gold mineralization along 11 kilometres of strike. The company has completed drilling of a detailed 4-kilometre grid in the centre of the LP Fault. Close to the Fault zone is the Hinge, Limb, Midwest and Arrow gold zones.
“We recently resumed drilling near the Hinge and Limb zones and discovered a new, high-grade gold zone west of those targets,” said Taylor.
Taylor added the discovery comprises high-grade gold in silica-sulphide replacement alteration at the sub-vertical planar contact between two basalt flows and is most similar to the Dixie Limb zone in style.
“The new Midwest zone closely resembles the style of gold mineralization observed at the Dixie Limb zone. Both occur at the sheet-like contacts between different basalt units and consist of silica-sulphide replacement style mineralization including high-grade gold,” said Taylor.
Taylor said Great Bear will return to the Midwest zone soon to re-enter and extend previously drilled holes into the Midwest area, as well as drilling other new, untested basalt contacts.
Analysts were generally bullish on the discovery announcement. Canaccord Genuity Capital Markets analyst Kevin MacKenzie said that while the discovery was still at a very early stage, “the Midwest zone not only provides a target for future resource growth but also highlights the potential to uncover additional centres of sulphide replacement style of mineralization within the property.”
“To that end, Great Bear highlights geophysical targets southwest of the LP Fault zone, which may represent additional prospective basalt-basalt contacts,” said MacKenzie in a November 24 research note.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Andrew Mititchook also noted the Midwest zone as unlocking new drill targets based on the geological similarities between the Hinge and Limb zones.
“The Midwest zone, like the Limb zone, features gold mineralization within basalt-basalt contacts that were previously thought to be only gold-bearing at the Limb zone; the Midwest discovery indicates that other similar contact zones may be gold-bearing, and opens up new drill targets for GBR to pursue,” he said in a November 24 research note.
The Hinge Zine discovery holes. Great Bear managed to hit the high-grade mineralization where previous operators could not. Photo by Henry Lazenby.
Meanwhile, ongoing drilling of the LP Fault zone continues to return significant gold intervals at depths ranging from bedrock surface to over 600 vertical metres.
Current holes have targeted the zone at various points along 2.9 kilometres of strike at the LP Fault zone.
Along with announcing the Midwest discovery, Great Bear also released further results from LP Fault drilling, including 66.3 grams gold per tonne over 0.5 metres from 407.3 metres depth. This was within a broader interval assaying 6.15 grams gold per tonne gold over 7.2 metres from 406.8 metres depth.
In the previous drilling, shallow LP Fault drill holes were also completed to in-fill drill gaps of up to 100 metres.
Highlights included 0.59 gram gold per tonne over 65.7 metres from 28.5 metres to 94.2 metres downhole. Another hole returned 32.4 grams gold per tonne over 0.5 metres from 72.1 metres downhole, within a broader interval assaying 1.62 grams gold per tonne over 11.2 metres from 66.7 metres depth, said Taylor.
The Dixie project comprises more than 91.4 square kilometres of contiguous claims that extend over 22 kilometres. It has ready access to a paved highway and provincial power and natural gas lines.
Moving forward, Great Bear has started work on a new grid-based drill program on 25 to 100-metre centres in the Hinge, Limb, and Midwest zones, the results of which will support a maiden resource estimate for these zones in the second half of 2022.
LP Fault zone infill and extensional drilling remain ongoing. The drill grid will cover an area of about 400 metres in strike by 600 metres vertically. A maiden resource estimate for this zone is expected in the first quarter of 2022, followed by a preliminary economic assessment.
News of the discovery failed to excite the market materially, and Great Bear’s Toronto-quoted equity was at press time trading down nearly 3% at $20.82 per share. It has a market capitalization of $1.20 billion.
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