April 18, 2013 -
Great Bear Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: GBR, "Great Bear", or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has entered into an Option Agreement to earn a 100% interest in the Perdito sediment-hosted oxide gold project. The project is located in Inyo County, California, an active mining district that hosts the producing Briggs gold mine of Atna Resources Ltd. (TSX:ATN.TO - News).
The project covers a contiguous 7.5 km by 6.5 kilometre area, with additional outlier claims. Mineralization is present in three main types:
1)Total property-scale, Carlin-type sediment-hosted oxide gold system with 12 drill proven gold targets with both bulk tonnage heap leach type and narrower historical high grade oxide drill results.
2)Drill-confirmed extension of an historic high-grade silver-lead zinc mine, and
3)Undrilled porphyry copper-gold system with a 900 m circular surface leached copper oxide zone.
Under the terms of the Agreement, the Company must make aggregate payments of $710,000 and 6,500,000 shares over three years to earn a 100% interest in the project from private vendors. The project is subject to a 3% NSR, 1% of which can be bought back for $1,000,000. There are no required minimum exploration expenditures. The agreement is subject to TSX-V approval.
Sediment Hosted Oxide Gold System
Key aspects of the oxide gold mineralized system include:
- Past work by BHP Ltd. (NYSE:ADR), Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE:NEM - News), Asamera Minerals Inc., and Mobil Corp.'s Exploration Group.
- Preliminary non NI43-101 compliant historic exploration target estimates by BHP of potential for up to 2,000,000 oxide ounces of gold at a grade range of 1 - 2 g/t (BHP internal report, 1997).
- More than 150 reverse circulation and diamond drill holes completed across various targets intercepting gold mineralization ranging from anomalous to greater than 0.25 oz/st (8.6 g/t). Highlighted results from drilling at various targets are provided in Table 1.
- Confirmation of a total property-scale Carlin-style sediment-hosted gold mineralized system with multiple at-surface oxide gold zones.
- Many gold targets have been trenched but remain undrilled. Highlighted results from these trenches are provided in Table 2.
BHP Ltd. (NYSE:ADR) undertook the most recent work on the Perdito project, testing nine oxide gold targets across a 4.2 kilometre by 2.5 kilometre area. In internal reports, BHP geologists made non NI 43-101 compliant estimates that this area could contain more than 2,000,000 ounces of gold at grades of 1 - 2 g/t, and recommended a 50+ drill hole follow-up program to expand on positive test drilling. While not reliable under NI43-101 standards, these estimates do represent the possible scope of the project.
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|Zone |Drill |From (ft)|To (ft)|Width|Width (m)|Gold |Gold |
| |Hole | | |(ft) | |(oz/st)|(g/t)|
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Soda |SR-09 |250 |270 |20 |6.1 |0.152 |5.21 |
|Ridge | | | | | | | |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Soda |SR-15 |150 |165 |15 |4.6 |0.167 |5.73 |
|Ridge | | | | | | | |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Soda |SR87 C-3|258 |280 |22 |6.7 |0.253 |8.67 |
|Ridge | | | | | | | |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Detailed |DG-1 |31 |76 |45 |13.7 |0.025 |0.86 |
|Grid | | | | | | | |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Detailed |DG-5 |46.5 |57.3 |10.8 |3.3 |0.051 |1.75 |
|Grid | | | | | | | |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Soda |SC-3 |0 |64 |64 |19.5 |0.025 |0.86 |
|Canyon | | | | | | | |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Soda |SC-8 |25 |30 |5 |1.5 |0.253 |8.67 |
|Canyon | | | | | | | |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Dragonfly|CM97-4 |50 |80 |30 |9.1 |0.101 |3.46 |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Dragonfly|CM97-4 |140 |180 |40 |12.2 |0.100 |3.43 |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Dragonfly|CM97-4 |290 |320 |30 |9.1 |0.045 |1.54 |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Middle |CM97-6 |1050 |1085 |35 |10.7 |0.038 |1.30 |
|Segment | | | | | | | |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Resource |CGL-1 |25 |30 |5 |1.5 |0.240 |8.23 |
|Area | | | | | | | |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Resource |CGL-2 |320 |340 |20 |6.1 |0.079 |2.71 |
|Area | | | | | | | |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Resource |CGL-3 |130 |175 |45 |13.7 |0.073 |2.50 |
|Area | | | | | | | |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|East Area|CGL-8 |170 |185 |15 |4.6 |0.053 |1.82 |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|South |CGL-16 |170 |185 |15 |4.6 |0.053 |1.82 |
|Area | | | | | | | |
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Table 1: Highlighted results from test drilling of various targets. All intercepts are drill indicated.
Significant work by Newmont included discovery and drilling of several oxide gold zones. These generally contain from-surface gold mineralization in the 1 - 5 g/t range, ranging from below detection limits to greater than 20 g/t (0.6 oz/st). In 1991, Newmont drilled a test grid of 8 diamond drill holes over a 450 m x 250 m area, the "Resource Area", where in a non-43-101 compliant internal resource estimate they defined 174,000 oz of gold at an average grade of 0.059 oz/st (2.0 g/t) gold that remains open to extension.
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|Area |Trench |Trench Interval (m)|Gold (oz/st)|Gold (g/t)|
| |Interval| | | |
| |(ft) | | | |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Resource Area|40 |12.2 |0.151 |5.18 |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Dragonfly |140 |42.7 |0.123 |4.22 |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Including |40 |12.2 |0.370 |12.69 |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Dragonfly |15 |4.6 |0.105 |3.60 |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Eastern |15 |4.6 |0.208 |7.13 |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Southern |20 |6.1 |0.038 |1.30 |
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Table 2: Highlighted trench results. These trenches have not yet been drill tested.
Gold mineralization is typically sediment hosted, occurring mainly in silty to shaley and congolmeritic units within a carbonate-dominated stratigraphic sequence that also hosts Jurassic monzonite intrusions. More than a dozen individual gold-bearing stratigraphic units have been drill confirmed to date, occurring at all stratigraphic levels across the property. A large number of high-angle structures also carry gold mineralization, and are spatially related to areas of stronger sediment-hosted gold mineralization.
Past-Producing Silver-Lead-Zinc Mine Extension
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|Drill |From |To ft |Width|Width|Au |Au |Ag |Ag |Cu % |Pb % |Zn % |
|Hole |ft | |ft |m |oz/st|g/t |oz/st|g/t | | | |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|SR-1 |440 |545 |105 |32.0 |- -- |2.61 |90 |0.30 |2.10 |9.87 |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Incl. |460.5 |484 |23.5 |7.16 |0.010|0.34 |8.27 |284 |0.60 |9.27 |14.20|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|SR-3 |645.3 |668.5 |23.2 |7.07 |0.060|2.06 |9.43 |323 |1.74 |20.6 |8.25 |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|SR-5 |398.6 |422 |23.4 |7.13 |0.033|1.13 |4.97 |170 |0.04 |1.04 |1.75 |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|SR-6 |267 |287 |20 |6.10 |0.262|8.98 |26.70|915 |1.30 |1.40 |3.07 |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|SR-7 |231 |243.2 |12.2 |3.72 |- -- |4.73 |162 |0.41 |1.21 |3.33 |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|SR-11*|1164 |1225.5|61.5 |18.75|- -- |2.02 |69 |0.08 |3.12 |3.01 |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|SR-11*|1194 |1225.5|31.5 |9.60 |- -- |3.20 |110 |0.12 |5.60 |1.51 |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|SR-11*|1322.5|1328 |8 |2.44 |0.016|0.55 |1.84 |63 |0.12 |1.00 |0.64 |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|*Drill hole SR-11 is located on the Perdito project claims, showing |
|extension of the mine’s mineralization onto the project.
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table 3: Highlighted drill results from historic mine. All intercepts are drill indicated, however as mineralized zones are flat-lying, these intercepts may approximate true thicknesses.
Manto type deposits are associated with Jurassic intrusions in carbonates, the largest of which has been drill-proven to project onto the Perdito claims.
Adjacent to the project, and currently situated in an inlier government owned mineral claim, is a past producing silver-lead-zinc mine. The mine was in largely continuous operation from 1911 to 1950, and intermittently active from 1950 to 1973. Sediment replacement, or "manto" style silver-lead-zinc mineralization was mined from a number of high-angle structures. Gold mineralization was also noted in portions of the ore bodies.
The Americas Mining Corp. completed an eleven hole drill program, mapping and geophysical surveying surrounding the mine in 1990 - 1991. Drilling discovered a large number of nearly flat-lying, manto-type sediment replacement mineralized zones that had not been exploited by past operations. Highlighted results of that drilling are provided above in Table 3.
Underground drill holes completed during active mining in the 1950's intercepted similar repetitive occurrences of stacked silver-lead-zinc mineralization. Drilling encountered 9 to 30 silver-lead-zinc mineralized intercepts over stratigraphic thicknesses of 510 to 650 feet. One summary of drill results shows 129 cumulative feet of mineralization over 510 vertical feet averaging 0.33 oz/st silver, 0.53% lead and 8.8% zinc, although these assays cannot be verified. These results collectively show a strong, multi-layered mineralized system with excellent exploration potential.
The mine site and location of most of the drill collars reported in Table 3 was gifted to the Bureau of Land Management in the mid 1990's and was subsequently incorporated into a protected wilderness area. However, the access road to the mine site was placed back into the public domain and was subsequently staked, together with a series of claims on open BLM land adjacent to the protected area, all of which are included in the Perdito project. These claims cover the location of drill hole SR-11, and hence the drill proven on-strike extension of the mineralized system is now part of the Perdito project.
The extension of the system onto the project is also supported by results of a ground-based Induced Polarization geophysical survey that was completed at the time of drilling, showing strong sulfide-associated chargeability responses projecting onto the Perdito claims.
Porphyry Copper-Gold Target
Jurassic quartz diorite to monzonite intrusions are also associated with a mapped and undrilled copper-gold porphyry system, the "Stegosaurus Ridge" target.
The porphyry target was mapped by Asamera Minerals Inc. in the 1980's and 1990's, and has a 900 m diameter (63 Ha) circular copper-in-bedrock anomaly defined by over 960 gridded bedrock chip samples. These average approximately 0.1% copper across more than 100 surface chip samples at the core of the system, which is ringed by concentric lead, zinc and arsenic anomalies in a typical porphyry zonation pattern. The target has an adjacent drill-confirmed gold system, the "Detailed Grid" target, drill results from which are included in the Table 1. To date only the gold, and not the copper porphyry target has been drill-tested.
Information for this news release is taken from a variety of corporate documents detailing past work on the property. Reported assay results cannot be verified, although in many cases assay certificates accompanying the original work are appended to the historic work reports.
Mr. Chris Taylor, M.Sc. P.Geo, is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 is responsible for the accuracy of this news release.
About Great Bear
Great Bear is a well-funded Canadian precious metals exploration company working in leading jurisdictions of Canada and the United States. A 100% interest can be obtained in the Perdito oxide gold project, California, and a 70% interest can be obtained in the BA silver-rich VMS project, Eskay Creek District, northern British Columbia.
For further information please contact Mr. Chris Taylor, P.Geo, President, or Mr. Robert Orr, Investor Relations, at 604-681-0037.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
"Chris Taylor"
Chris Taylor, President
Great Bear Resources Ltd.
Investor Relations: Robert Orr
Tel: 604-681-0037
Fax: 604-681-0094
ro@greatbearresources.ca, info@greatbearresources.ca
www.greatbearresources.ca
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy o this release.
This new release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors discussed in the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
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