TSX-V:
GBR
VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 22, 2020 /CNW/ - Great Bear Resources Ltd.
(the "Company" or "Great Bear"), (TSX-V: GBR) (OTCQX: GTBAF)
today provided an update on metallurgical testing underway
at its 100% owned flagship Dixie Project in the Red Lake district of Ontario.
Highlights Include:
- The Company has retained Blue Coast Research Ltd. from
Parksville, British Columbia to
provide metallurgical test work and consultation services for the
Dixie Project.
- Metallurgical testing will provide the Company with
estimates of likely gold recoveries, fineness, and
recommendations on metallurgical flow sheet development and
design for the various gold zones at the Dixie project, which
are required for maiden resource publication.
- 7,465 occurrences of visible gold have been recorded in
drill core to date by Great Bear. Over 80% of the Company's drill
holes into the LP Fault, Dixie Limb and Hinge zones have been noted
to contain visible gold mineralization occurring as free gold and
not bound to or within sulphide minerals. Examples are shown in
Figure 1.
- In the Red Lake district,
gold deposits that are similarly dominated by free gold
typically yield very high gold recoveries. The primary example
of this occurs at the Red Lake Gold Mine operated by Evolution
Mining Ltd., where recoveries of 94 – 97% are typically reported
(NI 43-101 Technical Report, Goldcorp, 2015).
- Samples from quartz veins, silica-sulphide replacement zones
and disseminations within sedimentary and felsic host rocks from
the LP Fault, Dixie Limb and Hinge zones have been, and
continue to be, collected and submitted on an ongoing basis.
Results will be released in batches as they are received.
- Early stage petrographic work completed by Great Bear
and past operators provides key evidence of how gold occurs in the
rocks, and is being used to guide metallurgical testing. This
work has identified free gold mineralization at both the Dixie Limb
and LP Fault Zones. Petrographic work on Hinge zone samples is
underway and is expected to yield similar results.
- Great Bear has analyzed approximately 136,000 geochemical
samples to date. Results suggest the gold mineralized system at
Dixie generally has lower concentrations of trace elements such
as arsenic, zinc and lead than are commonly observed within gold
deposits across the Red Lake
district, due to a lower content of accessory sulphide
minerals. Other elements such as antimony and tellurium are also
generally absent in the mineralized zones at Dixie.
Chris Taylor, President and CEO
of Great Bear said, "We have catalogued over seven thousand
occurrences of free visible gold in our drill core to date.
In more than 99% of observed instances, gold occurs freely or on
the edges of sulphide grains, suggesting potential for very high
metallurgical recoveries, as has been observed at other free gold
hosting deposits in the Red Lake
district. This is reinforced by petrographic studies which
show the same unencapsulated gold at microscope scale. We are
therefore very optimistic about the high recovery potential for
gold from all of our mineralized zones, and will provide results
from metallurgical testing on an ongoing basis as these become
available."
Preliminary Metallurgical Analysis: Petrography
Metallurgical petrography involves the examination of thin
sections of gold-hosting rock under a microscope to determine
whether the gold occurs freely within silicate minerals (such as
within quartz veins), where it is likely to require simpler
processes to extract, or alternatively is bound within sulphide
minerals, where more complicated extraction processes may be
required.
Petrographic work by Great Bear and past operators confirms
that gold at the Dixie project occurs freely in association with
silicate minerals and is not encapsulated by sulphide mineral
species, even when sulphide accessory minerals are present.
LP Fault Zone
2019 research conducted by Panterra Geoservices Inc.
("Panterra") on behalf of Great Bear described gold bearing samples
from the LP Fault zone as follows:
"…Several flakes of gold are present and all appear to lie
within the same dismembered folia of interlocking quartz…The
largest flake is around 0.2 mm and the flakes are visible with a
hand lens. Some of the flakes are touching biotite or
calcite. They are not associated with the cubic
pyrite."
A photomicrograph image of this gold mineralization is provided
in Figure 2.
Dixie Limb Zone
A similar historical report completed in 2004 by Panterra on
behalf of a past operator included optical petrography and scanning
electron microscope (SEM) examination of gold mineralization from
the Dixie Limb zone, where sulphide minerals dominated by
pyrrhotite frequently accompany gold mineralization. The
report concluded:
"…Several crystals [of gold] were attached to
the edge of larger pyrrhotite crystals, but none was
encapsulated."
A photomicrograph image of this gold mineralization is provided
in Figure 3.
Petrographic and metallurgical sampling and analysis are also
underway at the Hinge zone. Based on more than one thousand
in-core visible gold observations made to date, the Company expects
similar results to those which have been reported from the LP Fault
and Dixie Limb.
Figure 1: Examples of free gold in drill core from
the Dixie Limb, Hinge and LP Fault zones. This is the
dominant format of gold mineralization within these gold
zones. Images are of selected core intervals and do not
represent all of the gold mineralization at Dixie.
Figure 2: Free gold (yellow) within a sample from
the LP Fault which assayed 130.97 g/t gold (Ross, 2019).
Figure 3: Petrographic report completed in 2004 by
Fronteer Gold Corp. showing free gold (yellow) from the Dixie Limb
zone (Ross, 2004).
About the Dixie Project
The Dixie Project is 100% owned, comprised of 9,140 hectares of
contiguous claims that extend over 22 kilometres, and is located
approximately 25 kilometres southeast of the town of Red Lake, Ontario. The project is accessible
year-round via a 15 minute drive on a paved highway which runs the
length of the northern claim boundary and a network of
well-maintained logging roads.
The Dixie Project hosts two principle styles of gold
mineralization:
- High-grade gold in quartz veins and silica-sulphide
replacement zones (Dixie Limb, Hinge and Arrow zones). Hosted
by mafic volcanic rocks and localized near regional-scale D2 fold
axes. These mineralization styles are also typical of the
significant mined deposits of the Red
Lake district.
- High-grade disseminated gold with broad moderate to lower
grade envelopes (LP Fault). The LP Fault is a significant
gold-hosting structure which has been seismically imaged to extend
to 14 kilometres depth (Zeng and Calvert, 2006), and has been interpreted by
Great Bear to have up to 18 kilometres of strike length on the
Dixie property. High-grade gold mineralization is controlled by
structural and geological contacts, and moderate to lower-grade
disseminated gold surrounds and flanks the high-grade intervals.
The dominant gold-hosting stratigraphy consists of felsic sediments
and volcanic units.
About Great Bear
Great Bear Resources Ltd. is a well-financed gold
exploration company managed by a team with a track record of
success in mineral exploration. Great Bear is focused in the
prolific Red Lake gold district in
northwest Ontario, where the
company controls over 300 km2 of highly prospective
tenure across 4 projects: the flagship Dixie Project (100%
owned), the Pakwash Property (earning a 100% interest), the Dedee
Property (earning a 100% interest), and the Sobel Property (earning
a 100% interest), all of which are accessible year-round through
existing roads.
Qualified Person and NI 43-101 Disclosure
Mr. R. Bob Singh, P.Geo, Director
and VP Exploration, and Ms. Andrea Diakow
P.Geo, Exploration Manager for Great Bear are the Qualified
Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101 responsible for
the accuracy of technical information contained in this news
release.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
"Chris
Taylor"
Chris Taylor, President and
CEO
Cautionary note regarding forward-looking
statements
This release contains certain "forward looking statements"
and certain "forward-looking information" as defined under
applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws. Forward-looking
statements and information can generally be identified by the use
of forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "should",
"expect", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe",
"continue", "plans" or similar terminology. The forward-looking
information contained herein is provided for the purpose of
assisting readers in understanding management's current
expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are
cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other
purposes.
Forward-looking information are based on management of the
parties' reasonable assumptions, estimates, expectations, analyses
and opinions, which are based on such management's experience and
perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments,
and other factors that management believes are relevant and
reasonable in the circumstances, but which may prove to be
incorrect.
Great Bear undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking
information except as required by applicable law. Such
forward-looking information represents management's best judgment
based on information currently available. No forward-looking
statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary
materially. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue
reliance on forward-looking statements or information.
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SOURCE Great Bear Resources Ltd.