White Cliff lines up fresh copper targets for 2027 drilling

• White Cliff completes 4,213 line-km of regional geophysical surveys at Rae
• New copper-bearing veins mapped across 610m by 240m at Thor East
• Pending assays and geophysics to help prioritise potential 2027 drilling

Special Report:White Cliff Minerals has mapped new copper-bearing veins at Thor East and completed a major regional geophysical campaign at its Rae copper project in northern Canada, building its base for potential drilling beyond the flagship Danvers discovery.

White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) has completed 4,213 line-kilometres of detailed airborne magnetic, gravity and radiometric surveys, alongside the collection of 848 glacial till samples to help identify and rank promising copper targets.

The latest exploration work also uncovered multiple zones of outcropping copper-bearing veins at Thor East, spanning an area measuring 610m by 240m.

Thor East is located more than 1.3km northeast of the original Thor showing sampled in 2024 and alongside the 10.7km-long Mjolnir Fault Zone.

That structure has the same northeast-southwest orientation as the Teshierpi Fault Zone, which hosts the company’s high-grade Danvers copper system.

A total of 20 new rock-chip grab samples have been collected from newly identified mineralised outcrops at Thor and Rocket, with laboratory results pending.

Both prospects remain undrilled, but the combination of sampling, geological mapping and new geophysical data could help White Cliff establish priority targets for maiden drilling in 2027.

Danvers provides the exploration playbook

White Cliff is increasingly drawing on the geological knowledge gained from the drilling success at Danvers to identify new copper opportunities across the broader Rae project.

Drilling at Danvers has helped establish relationships between copper mineralisation, major fault structures, breccias and basalt flow contacts.

The company is now applying those geological characteristics to the volcanic-hosted copper targets at Bornite Hills, Thor and Rocket.

For example, previously reported drilling at Danvers 3 returned 23m at 6.18% copper from 161m within crackle and mosaic breccias along the margins of a major fault zone.

Another Danvers intersection returned 90m at 4% copper from surface in chaotic breccia within the main structure.

These mineralisation styles have different magnetic signatures, providing useful geological and geophysical characteristics for identifying prospective structures elsewhere at Rae.

“Drilling at Danvers has sharpened our understanding of the structures, breccias and basalt flow contacts associated with copper mineralisation,” White Cliff managing director Troy Whittaker said.

“We are applying that knowledge to prioritise targets at Bornite Hills, Thor and Rocket, while the regional survey also supports assessment of the separate sediment-hosted copper opportunity.”

The potential for additional copper systems beyond Danvers has already received support from drilling at Bornite Hills, where maiden assays recently returned 11.5m at 2% copper.

The latest geophysical program covers Bornite Hills, Thor and Rocket, along with the Rae Group-basalt contact, where White Cliff is separately targeting sediment-hosted copper mineralisation.

High-grade history adds weight to new targets

The new Thor East discovery follows encouraging earlier surface sampling at both Thor and Rocket.

Previous exploration at Thor identified a chalcocite-dominant vein and breccia system extending over 823m of north-south strike.

Selective surface samples collected in 2024 returned grades reaching 54.02% copper at Thor, while Rocket delivered a peak result of 54.12% copper.

These high-grade rock-chip results demonstrate the presence of copper at surface, although drilling will be required to establish the extent and grade of any mineralisation at depth.

White Cliff’s latest work has identified additional copper-bearing veins at Thor East, extending the areas of interest beyond those previously sampled.

The company is also using glacial till geochemistry to investigate areas where potentially prospective structures are concealed beneath thin surface cover.

Of the 848 till samples collected, 436 came from the Thor area and 412 from Rocket.

High-resolution magnetic data will help map structures beneath that cover, including at Rocket, where the survey was completed on 100m line spacing.

Building the drilling pipeline for 2027

White Cliff is now processing and integrating the geophysical survey results with its surface sampling data to identify specific targets for further exploration.

Rock-chip assay results are expected within approximately six weeks, while the broader till geochemistry results are anticipated over the coming months.

These datasets will help White Cliff determine which prospects warrant follow-up work and potential maiden drilling next year.

“Integrating these results with the geophysics will help us focus exploration expenditure on the strongest targets for potential drilling in 2027, alongside our continuing work at Danvers,” Whittaker said.

This article was developed in collaboration with White Cliff Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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