White Cliff Minerals is gearing up for a bumper 2024 as its hunt for a smorgasbord of metals in both Australia and Canada builds steam. Planned works include diamond drilling at the recently acquired Radium Point uranium, gold and copper project in Canada where rock chip results from historical works include an eye-catching 14.15 per cent uranium, 22.72 per cent copper and 8.28 grams per tonne gold.
The company has now engaged local exploration experts to execute and oversee geological, logistical and personnel support for what it considers to be a significant diamond drilling campaign at Radium Point.
An initial rock chip and channel sampling program across a wider, regional area of the 2,900 square kilometre tenure is set to commence shortly. The sampling is designed to verify historical results and known mineralisation along laterally extensive structures visible in aerial surveys. It will complement a geological sampling and mapping campaign.
White Cliff believes the planned works will generate a pipeline of drill targets across a host of prospects located at Radium Point. These include the priority Thomsons prospect where historical trench sampling by the Geological Survey of Canada returned the 14.15 per cent uranium sample along with 6.22 g/t gold and 122 g/t silver. Another historical sample came in at 1.63 per cent uranium, 729 g/t silver, 1.56 g/t gold and 7.5 per cent copper.
According to the company, Radium Point has been identified by the Northwest Territories Geoscience Government as having the highest probability for hosting iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) uranium and silver-style mineralisation in Canada.
Diamond drilling at the project is tabled for the third quarter of 2024.
The company is also advancing its pursuit of high-grade copper, gold and silver mineralisation at its Nanavut Coppermine project, located some 240 kilometres from Radium Point. It has engaged Canadian geophysics experts to conduct an airborne geophysical survey at Nanavut Coppermine designed to define structural trends, electromagnetic conductors and areas of contrasting resistivity which may be associated with high-grade copper mineralisation.
The airborne survey is expected to commence in the current quarter. Previous exploration at Nanavut Coppermine has already identified numerous highly prospective copper and silver occurrences, including several samples grading more than a significant 30 per cent copper.
Separately, White Cliff is also set to focus on its portfolio of core Australian projects throughout 2024. Notably, the company has already launched a 2,000m RC drilling blitz at its wholly owned Reedy South gold project in Western Australia, designed to infill and test strike and depth-extensions to an existing inferred resource totalling about 42,000 ounces of gold.
Elsewhere, the group has mobilised contractors and its own staff to undertake a targeted soil and bedrock sampling program across its largely unexplored Lake Johnston gold and lithium project, as well as its Diemals project that is prospective for copper, lithium, gold, nickel and rare earths. Management believes both projects represent underexplored and emerging mineral provinces in Western Australia.
White Cliff could be in for a transformational year as its exploration efforts in Canada and Australia gather momentum. By any measure Radium Point was a good pick up that is begging to see some modern day exploration. Management believes it is recognised for hosting Canada’s largest uranium mine between 1932 and 1960. Market pundits may be well served by keeping a close eye on the company’s progress if historical results at the project are anything to go by.
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By Bart Bogacz
