Like the recently discovered Bear-Rimini zone, Yuma is also hosted by the LP fault, an 18km-long, gold-bearing deep-seated crustal structure. The discovery was made by reviewing drill core from a previous operator.

"This is the cheapest discovery hole we've ever had, since the high-grade visible gold interval was sitting unreported for 12 years in drill core stored on the property.  The new Yuma zone matched our projections of where a Bear-Rimini type gold zone could exist along strike and flanking the LP Fault," said president and CEO Chris Taylor.

An historical hole drilled in 2007 was effectively a 1.4km step-out to the southeast from Great Bear's Bear-Rimini discovery hole. Company geologists noted sparse fine visible gold within strongly silicified felsic volcanic rocks towards the end of the Bear-Rimini discovery hole and then sampled the previously uncut 2007 core. This assayed 5.5m grading 4.07 grams per tonne of gold.

With the footwall of the LP fault now drilled across 1.4km of strike length, Great Bear plans further step-out drilling along the 18km projected strike length of the fault and the parallel North fault to see how extensive this system is. It is also re-logging and sampling all available historical drill core from areas north of the LP Fault zone. 

Great Bear is progressing with a 90,000m drill programme through 2019 and 2020. About 55,000m remain to be completed with targets to be tested including the Hinge Zone, Dixie Limb Zone, Bear-Rimini Zone, Yuma Zone, LP Fault, North Fault and others.

Shares in Great Bear Resources (TSXV:GBR) are trading at C$4.52, valuing the company at $187 million, Its share price has risen 84.5% since the start of the year.