White Cliff Minerals’ (ASX:WCN) Coppermine Project in Nunavut, Canada, is officially fully permitted for exploration thanks to the recent approval of the company’s licences from the Nunavut Planning Commission (NPC).
The $19.4 million market capitalisation company says this ‘critical’ regulatory approval means it can now move forward to appoint contractors for its 2024 exploration initiatives and take on a logistical planning phase.
White Cliff says state, public, and private historical exploration identified ‘dozens’ of outcropping occurrences of copper and silver mineralisation in the area, including results such as 30.24% copper and 34 grams per tonne (g/t) silver at the Halo prospect, 35.54% copper and 17g/t silver at the Cu-Tar prospect, and 30.7% copper and greater than 200g/t silver at the Don prospect.
Alongside these results, the Coppermine area is home to several non-JORC mineral resource estimates along a structural trend of more than 100km, according to White Cliff.
The company’s planned exploration will follow up on this historical work.
As far as its exploration plans go, White Cliff plans to first take on airborne sensing, geological mapping, and sampling in the project area, which will lead to ‘extensive’ drilling on higher-priority areas within the project.
White Cliff says it is in talks with several Canada-based service providers for its various planned programs to mark what will be the ‘first systematic exploration at this project area in decades’.
Chairman Roderick McIllree says the approval for the planned exploration in the Coppermine area was a ‘critical’ component of the company’s strategic planning phase.
“We can now focus on validating a significant database of historical mineral resources, high-grade outcrop samples, and ultimately prepare for drilling.”
“We can now focus on validating a significant database of historical mineral resources, high-grade outcrop samples, and ultimately prepare for drilling”
The Coppermine Project covers 805km-square of flood basalts, including multiple ‘highly prospective’ mineral showings and outcrops, according to White Cliff.
Most of these copper occurrences are structurally controlled along steeply dipping fault fissures and fault-breccia zones in the basalts.
Alongside Coppermine, White Cliff owns the Radium Point Uranium Project in the Echo Bay district of Ontario, as well as the Lake Tay Rare Earth Elements (REE), the Diemals Lithium-REE-Copper, and the Bentley Copper-Gold-Uranium-REE Projects in Western Australia.
Write to Joshua Smith at Mining.com.au
Images: White Cliff Minerals
