White Cliff Minerals (ASX: WCN) has received approval for its licences from the Nunavut Planning Commission (NPC) in Canada for the high-grade Coppermine project.
This approval marks a major step in the permitting process and allows the company to now appoint contractors for 2024 exploration initiatives and complete the logistical planning phase. This approval also ensures that any proposed activities align with regulatory expectations and underscores White Cliffs’ demonstrable commitment to responsible resource development with local, territorial and federal stakeholders.
The company is now fully permitted and will take up where state, public and private sponsored historical exploration previously identified dozens of outcropping occurrences of copper and silver mineralisation as well as non JORC mineral estimates along more than a 100km long structural trend.
Coppermine contains numerous historical non JORC or NI 43-101 and ‘blue sky’ mineral estimates that will be a priority during 2024.
The company will leverage recent advancements in airborne sensing and data gathering technologies as well as undertaking detailed mapping and sampling to identify areas for further detailed study within the licence area. Ultimately, this work will culminate in extensive drilling on higher priority areas identified throughout this large-scale mineralised structure.
Negotiations with several Canadian based service providers continue for various work programmes on what will be the first systematic exploration at this project area in decades.
Once finalised, these work programmes will be announced to market and will run in close collaboration with planned work at Radium Point, the company’s recently acquired district scale uranium project.
While focus will move to finalising operational aspects of the upcoming exploration programme the company will also continue to work closely with local communities, indigenous groups and other stakeholders to ensure activities align with community expectations and these considerations are actively integrated into all activities.
"With this Nunavut Commission licence approval, we are now fully permitted and can move to finalise our exploration initiatives including contractor selection. This milestone was a critical component of our strategic planning phase and is now delivered. We can now focus on validating a significant database of historical mineral resources, high grade outcrop samples and ultimately prepare for drilling,” Chairman, Roderick McIllree, said.
Initial Exploration and Study Activities
The company proposes to undertake a number of exploration and study activities which are broadly based on successful exploration methodologies adopted for similar sedimentary and volcanic copper deposits globally:
- Field crews to be mobilised for orientation / reconnaissance and planning for future work.
- Acquisition of all high resolution satellite hosted products, ariel photography and multispectral
and electromagnetic data.
- Assessment of modern airborne geophysical techniques for targeting, particularly electromagnetic surveys, such as Mobile
- Systematic rock and trench sampling.
- Drilling to test the extensional potential of high grade structurally controlled and stratiform copper mineralisation.
