Great Bear raises $16.7 million for Dixie exploration
Great Bear Resources Ltd. [GBR-TSXV; GTBDF-OTC] said it has raised $16.7 million from an over-subscribed bought deal private placement. The company said the placement consisted of 2.0 million common shares that qualify as “flow-through shares” and are priced at $8.35 per share.
Proceeds will be used to fund exploration at projects in the Red Lake area of northwestern Ontario where the company is engaged in a 90,000-metre drill program at its flagship Dixie property. This program is expected to continue through 2019 and 2020.
Covering 9,140 hectares, the Dixie Lake project is a typical Archean mesothermal gold vein system located 20-25 km from significant mines that share the same geological and metallogenic characteristics.
They include Newmont Goldcorp.‘s [NGT-TSX, NYSE-NEM] Red Lake Gold Mine, which has been in production since the late 1940s, and was expected to produce 235,000 ounces of gold this year at an all-in-sustaining cost of $1,000 an ounce. Newmont Goldcorp is in the process of selling the historic Red Lake mine to Evolution Mining Ltd. [EVN-ASX] of Australia.
Great Bear recently said ongoing drilling at Dixie has delivered three new gold discoveries along a major crustal-scale deformation zone called the LP Fault. This structure is a major interpreted gold mineralization control that traverses the Dixie claims along approximately 20 km of strike length. It has been drilled along 4 km of strike length to date. A parallel structure known as the North Fault is thought to transect the property along a similar distance.
Recent discoveries along the LP Fault include the high-grade Yauro, Viggo, Auro, Yuma and Bear-Rimini Zones.
The Yauro Zone is located half way between the Yuma and Auro Zones along the LP Fault, 380 metres to the southeast of the Yuma Zone discovery, and 390 metres to the northwest of the Auro Zone.
It consists of several gold intervals spanning two drill holes collared 125 metres apart, with intervals of mineralization observed over 300 metres of apparent width. Results include 32.00 g/t gold over 2.65 metres and 21.33 g/t gold over 3.30 metres within a wider interval of 5.14 g/t gold over 37.40 metres; 30.66 g/t gold over 3.45 metres, within a wider interval of 5.60 g/t gold over 25.25 metres; and 35.96 g/t gold over 1.73 metres, within a wider interval of 2.01 g/t gold over 66.20 metres.
Great Bear has said the Yuaro Zone marks the largest apparent concentration of near-surface high-grade gold intersected at the Dixie property to-date.
Great Bear also said its exploration team has observed gold mineralization to be largely continuous over several kilometres of the LP Fault, including between the Bear-Rimini, Yuma, Yauro, and Viggo discoveries. Exploration crews are currently completing drill fences between already drilled areas to establish continuity.
Meanwhile, the company said approximately 18,000 metres remain to be drilled in its current program at Dixie, where three drills are currently active.
The company said it will continue to undertake widely spaced reconnaissance step-out drilling along the LP Fault until the limits of the gold mineralized gold system are reached.
On Monday, Great Bear shares advanced 2.4% or 15 cents to $6.45 and now traded in a 52-week range of $1.85 and $9.57.