Chris Taylor, CEO of Great Bear ResourcesSupplied
Chris Taylor and The Great Bear Resources Exploration Team
Due to intermittent exploration since 1985, industry consensus was that the potential of the Dixie project in the Red Lake gold camp in northern Ontario had been investigated and found wanting.
Yet Chris Taylor, CEO of Great Bear Resources, and VP Exploration Bob Singh, along with their team, believed there was a lot more gold to be discovered. Using historical data, including a suite of more than 150 drill holes, they constructed a new model of mineralization. Convinced that previous explorers had misinterpreted the geology, Mr. Taylor used his personal line of credit to finance early exploration.
This tenacity, which earned the team the PDAC 2023 Bill Dennis Award, led to a first major discovery: the Hinge zone. It was followed by more discoveries in rapid succession: the Bear-Rimini, Yuma, Auro, Yauro, Viggo and Gap zones, all part of a larger continuous zone of gold mineralization called the LP Fault Zone. Unlike the vein-hosted gold mineralization typical of Red Lake, the mineralization was sheet-like, containing high-grade zones within lower grade haloes.
In 2022, Great Bear was purchased by senior gold producer Kinross Gold with plans to develop a top-tier, long-life mine. The discovery reinvigorated exploration in the Red Lake camp.
Advertising feature produced by Randall Anthony Communications with the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.