White Cliff Minerals has beefed up its landholding at its Nunavut copper-gold-silver project in the northern Canadian province of the same name after putting its foot on two adjoining and “highly-prospective” exploration licences covering up to an additional 63 square kilometres.
The company’s new tenure includes the Halo prospect where historical drilling returned a 4.7m intercept at an eye-catching 10.47 per cent copper. Management noted that the mineralisation at Halo remains open in all directions and connects with the southern extension of its namesake prospect that is within ground already held by the company.
The new licences also include the Pat target where past rock chip sampling from multiple veins delivered a series of results grading more than 40 per cent copper.
The newly-granted ground only recently became available for application and is believed to cover several significant areas of anomalous copper, silver and gold mineralisation. Management believes it enhances the group’s overall strategic landholding in the Nunavut region.
White Cliff Minerals managing director Troy Whittaker said: “After stalking the process for several months and having assessed these areas in-depth previously, we were in pole position when this ground was released for application and I am pleased to say we were successful in securing the last missing pieces of our puzzle – and hence, our strategy of securing the most desired ground in the area is complete.”
In November last year, White Cliff acquired a swathe of ground in the Nunavut province after an agreement with a private party for 61 mineral claims covering 805sq km at Coppermine River. Whittaker says the broader Coppermine area is now subject to “an obvious land rush” and the company’s first-mover advantage has armed it with a massive head start in acquiring premium exploration ground in the region.
He noted that the new licences complement White Cliff’s existing project area with similar high-grade rock chip results hinting that the mineralised system is open in all directions.
Separately, White Cliff has also lodged an application for further exploration licences that include multiple new targets in proximity to its Nunavut landholdings.
Historical works at the company’s Lloyd target outlined a quartz-chalcocite vein with grades of up to 2 per cent copper and widening to as much as 6m along more than 1km of strike. Rock chip sampling at Lloyd also returned grades exceeding 40 per cent copper and 260 grams per tonne silver.
Elsewhere, past channel sampling served up grades of up to 8 per cent copper in some 4m at the Larry prospect, with rock chip sampling at the target also returning high-grade copper including 30 per cent from one sample. Historical rock chip sampling at the Jack prospect also delivered up to 45.4 per cent per cent copper and 60g/t silver from surface.
The grant of the new licences under application is subject to regulatory approval.
White Cliff is now set for its inaugural field campaign as it targets high-grade volcanic hosted copper-silver mineralisation and high-tonnage potential sedimentary-hosted copper prospects at its granted Nunavut landholdings. The exploration blitz is due to begin in the coming weeks and will consist of geological mapping, structural measurements and rock chip sampling of mineralised occurrences at the project.
A heli-mounted MobileMT survey will also be conducted to collect magnetic and conductivity data intended to better define targets for a future drilling campaign.
White Cliff’s tenure at Nunavut is already littered with highly-prospective showings of copper, gold and silver mineralisation. Now, the newly-granted ground adds another shot in the arm for a project that could potentially represent an untapped district-scale opportunity for the Perth-based company.
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By Bart Bogacz
