The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2024 - January 15, 2025
Launching its inaugural exploration campaign at Great Bear mid-2024, following the acquisition of essential permits in May, White Cliff focused on both historical and newly identified targets.
Emerging as a new participant in exploring Canada's North, White Cliff Minerals Ltd. conducted extensive exploration across its properties in Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Focusing on historical mine sites and newly identified targets, the Australian-based company got off to a strong start in pursuit for energy and precious metals.
With the acquisition of the Great Bear Lake project and the Coppermine River project in early 2024, White Cliff secured two highly prospective and underexplored land packages in Northern Canada. Later in the year, the Coppermine River project was incorporated into the larger Rae project, further expanding White Cliff's footprint in the region.
Covering 3,300 square kilometers (1,274 square miles) in the Echo Bay Mining District, the Great Bear Lake project (formerly Radium Point) was home to the Eldorado Mine, which produced 13.7 million pounds of uranium oxide (U3O8), 34.2 million ounces of silver, 11.4 million lb of copper, along with notable quantities of lead, nickel, and cobalt between 1933 and 1982.
Launching its inaugural exploration campaign at Great Bear mid-2024, following the acquisition of essential permits in May, the Australian-based company set about focusing on both historical and newly identified targets, aiming to breathe new life into a region that has long been considered a cornerstone of Canada's mineral wealth.
Initial efforts were centered on a comprehensive review of historical data combined with new geological mapping and sampling across key targets within Great Bear Lake.
Priority areas included Thompson Showing, Sparkplug Lake, and Spud Bay – each of which demonstrated promising mineralization in the past.
However, the team employed a modern touch, integrating geophysics and targeted sampling, to redefine these historic targets and expand the scope of prospective mineral zones.
Following the initial groundwork, White Cliff advanced its exploration with the deployment of a mobile magnetotelluric (MobileMT) geophysical survey across key areas of the project. This survey provided high-resolution subsurface data, identifying conductive anomalies indicative of extensive mineral systems.
Concurrently, reconnaissance exploration, including rock chip and channel sampling, was undertaken to refine drill targets, culminating in the identification of new zones with significant copper, silver, and uranium potential.
As the year progressed, exploration continued to yield promising results as additional priority targets emerged. Newly defined areas, such as Glacier and Cleaver, revealed significant iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) mineralization through detailed sampling efforts.
These discoveries, along with the verification of existing targets such as Sparkplug Lake, contributed valuable data regarding the distribution and characteristics of the mineralized systems at Great Bear Lake.
In the meantime, White Cliff initiated reconnaissance across its Rae project in Nunavut, a property covering approximately 1,198 square kilometers (462 square miles). The focus was on both historical showings and new geophysical anomalies.
The company's fieldwork similarly included rock chip sampling and geological mapping, providing early-stage insights into the potential for sediment-hosted copper and silver deposits. This work also helped establish high-priority targets for follow-up exploration and potential drilling campaigns.
By August, the first batch of assay results from the Great Bear Lake project began to roll in, providing promising indications of high-grade mineralization.
Highlights from the Glacier and Cleaver targets revealed impressive grades of copper, silver, and gold, with sampling returning values as high as 42.6% copper, 38.2 grams per metric ton gold, and 310 g/t silver, validating the potential of these newly defined zones.
In October, assay results from the Rae project began to emerge, adding another layer of promise to White Cliff's exploration efforts.
Samples from the Vision District returned exceptional grades, with up to 64% copper and 162 g/t silver. Additionally, the Hulk target showed encouraging results, with assays indicating up to 1.65% copper.
Further, results from an extensive 2,400 line-kilometer airborne geophysical survey revealed several large-scale conductive anomalies within the Hulk district, pinpointing potential sub-basins of copper mineralization, which will be critical in guiding upcoming drilling campaigns.
"This breakthrough discovery at Hulk confirms the scale and potential for significant copper discoveries across multiple zones," said White Cliff Minerals Managing Director Troy Whittaker. "With these results, we're finalizing drill locations for our fully funded 2025 campaign, positioning us for exciting developments ahead."
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