Great Bear advances Dixie gold project in Ontario

Great Bear Resources (TSXV: GBR; US-OTC: GTBAF) has reported new drill results from its fully-funded $21 million exploration program on its 100%-owned flagship Dixie project, about 25 km southwest of Red Lake, Ontario.

The latest drill results are from holes spaced 40-150 metres apart in previously undrilled gaps and step-outs on a 4,200 metre by 500 metre drill grid on the LP zone. The zone is a significant gold-hosting structure, which has been seismically imaged to extend to 14 km depth and has been interpreted by Great Bear to have up to 18 km of strike length. 

Highlights included drill hole BR-212, which intersected 101.5 metres grading 4.69 grams gold per tonne starting from 92 metres, including 5.25 metres grading 41.25 grams gold from 131 metres. Hole BR-212 returned the highest-grade central mineralised interval of 0.5 metres grading 181 grams gold from 133.75 metres and is the longest multi-gram gold interval on the project to date, the company said.

That hole, the company said, was completed as a 43-metre down-dip continuity test of previously reported drill hole BR-037, which cut 25.25 metres grading 5.6 grams gold from 189 metres and 1.05 metres grading 59.05 grams gold from 206.65 metres. Hole BR-212 is also a 73-metre up-dip continuation of the mineralised zone in previously reported drill hole BR-142, which intersected 53.5 metres grading 7.26 grams gold from 126 metres and 4.25 metres grading 32.39 grams gold from 136.75 metres.

“All holes successfully intersected gold mineralization where predicted by our models prior to drilling,” Chris Taylor, Great Bear’s president and CEO, stated in a press release. “With this release we have now reported results for 198 drill holes at the LP Fault since its discovery just 18 months ago, all of which have intersected gold.” 

Other highlights from the drill program included drill hole BR-211, which cut multiple gold intervals, including 8.85 metres grading 6.46 grams gold from 43.15 metres; 1 metre grading 48.1 grams gold from 48.15 metres; 52 metres grading 1.54 grams gold from 70.25 metres; 32.3 metres grading 1.61 grams gold from 169.75 metres; and 16.25 metres grading 1.2 grams gold from 385.75 metres. In aggregate, hole BR-211 intersected 189 metres grading more than 1 gram gold over 358.85 metres starting at the bedrock surface, the company said. 

The company plans to release a preliminary 3D model of the LP fault and its high-grade gold zones from surface to approximately 400 metres depth along 4.2 km so strike at the end of the month.    

This same model-driven drill process, the company said, is being repeated on more than 80 individual drill sections across more than 4 km of the central LP fault zone. Additional reconnaissance drill sections have also been completed on 400 – 1,000 metre spacings along a further 6 km of strike length of the LP fault, for a total of about 11 km of drilled strike length. 

Additional drill holes are planned at the Dixie Limb, Hinge, and Arrow zones and regional targets.

At press time in Toronto, Great Bear was trading at $16.16 per share within a 52-week trading range of $3.68 and $19.83. The company has around 53 million common shares outstanding for an $854.5-million market capitalization.