White Cliff closer to Great Bear drilling after First Nations agreement

White Cliff Minerals has executed an exploration agreement with the Délınę Got ̨ ’ınę government that facilitates exploration at Great Bear.

Great Bear drilling is just around the corner. Pic: Getty Images

Special Report: White Cliff Minerals is a key step closer to drilling at its Great Bear project in Canada’s Northwest Territories after executing an exploration agreement with the DélınÄ™ Got ̨ ’ınÄ™ First Nations government.

• White Cliff Minerals executes key agreement to start drilling for copper, gold, silver and uranium at its Great Bear project
• Final approval for drilling now pending from the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board
• Imminent results from MobileMT survey will help guide drill campaign at Great Bear

The agreement facilitates exploration for copper, gold, silver and uranium at the project and also grants a free one-year extension to all Great Bear permits to January 2028.

White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) is awaiting final approval from the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board in the coming weeks before it starts drilling.

Results from a MobileMT geophysical survey during 2024 are expected to be received in the coming weeks prior to the drilling ramp-up later in the season.

Watch: White Cliff scaling up for maiden campaign 

“I’d like to thank the chief, elders, directors of the board and community members of the Délınę ̨ Got’ınę ̨ government for their collaborative review and agreement of the exploration agreement at Great Bear, a significant milestone for both parties,” managing director Troy Whittaker said.

“We are delighted to have finalised this and look forward to an open and collaborative ongoing relationship with the people of Délınę.

“The highly anticipated results from the MobileMT geophysical survey at Great Bear are expected within the coming months. The data acquired through the survey is nearing final processing and interpretation by our independent experts - Southern Geoscience. 

“We have seen how valuable the data can be at our Rae copper project and publishing of results here at Great Bear should prove to be exciting for shareholders as we start to realise the potential at Great Bear. 

“Once we have received the interpreted MobileMT data from Southern Geoscience, we can start to plan a drilling campaign at Great Bear that can be programmed to follow on from the drilling due to commence imminently at our Rae copper project.”

Great Bear project

The Great Bear project, which is 240km southwest of the Rae project, covers 2900km2 of the iron-oxide-copper-gold prospective Great Bear Magmatic Zone (GBMZ).

GBMZ has been identified as having the highest probability for hosting large-scale IOCG and uranium mineralisation in Canada.

It has historical production totalling 13.7Mlb of U3O8, 34.3Moz silver, 11.4Mlb copper with gold credits along with nickel, cobalt and lead byproducts.

Great Bear itself is close to existing infrastructure and is accessible at all times of the year.

Watch: White Cliff's plans for 2025

To date, the MobileMT survey has identified four large IOCG hydrothermal systems within the project area while maiden fieldwork that started in July 2024 confirmed widespread IOCG-U polymetallic mineralisation.

A 1.1km structure at Phoenix returned grades of up to 42.6% copper, 7.96g/t gold and 310g/t silver in various samples while a 440m by 195m zone of outcropping intense epithermal alteration and veining had assays of 17.4g/t gold, 10.55% copper and 45.3g/t silver.

This article was developed in collaboration with White Cliff Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing. 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

Originally published as White Cliff closer to Great Bear drilling after First Nations agreement