White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) fires first shot in Canada’s copper frontier

If there’s one thing the junior end of the market has in spades, it’s nerve—and White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) has shown plenty of it.

The company has kicked off its maiden drill campaign at the Rae Copper Project in Nunavut, Canada, a full two months ahead of the region’s traditional field season.

It’s a gutsy move that positions White Cliff Minerals as an early-mover in the emerging Coppermine River district, a region steeped in mineral history but largely untouched by modern exploration.

The campaign’s early results? Promising, at the very least.

Highlights

• First three drillholes at Danvers return visible copper sulphides:

  • DAN25001: 58m of visible sulphides from surface

  • DAN25002: 79m from surface

  • DAN25003: 96m from 14m depth

• 25-hole program underway targeting 4,000m

• Assay results expected in 4–6 weeks

• pXRF confirms copper across all completed holes

While it’s early days and assays are pending, Managing Director Troy Whittaker is leaning into what the rocks are telling him.

“Visual confirmation of copper in the first three holes supports the view that the region may be fertile for large scale copper mineralisation,” Whittaker said in the latest update.

Indeed, the presence of bornite and chalcocite-rich chips—documented in DAN25003—points to the type of high-grade sulphide assemblages that get geologists excited and financiers circling.

But what makes this more than just another remote greenfields story is White Cliff’s broader approach.

The company’s methodical, data-led exploration—backed by geophysics, historical datasets, and community engagement—is giving the Rae Project more than just speculative legs.

White Cliff’s cooperation with local groups, including Kikiak Contracting in Kugluktuk and Arctic veterans like Aurora Geosciences, also speaks to a deeper awareness of the cultural and logistical complexity of operating in Nunavut.

This isn’t a fly-in-fly-out vanity drill—it’s a serious campaign with regional partnerships and long-term intent.

And the geological credentials stack up. The Rae Project sits atop the Teshierpi Fault Zone, a NE/SW trending structure littered with historic high-grade copper showings—some rock chips from surface returning over 60% copper.

The broader lease hosts seven known copper occurrences yet to be ground-truthed. That’s a lot of blue-sky exploration ahead.

To borrow a phrase from the exploration lexicon, this one’s “early stage but compelling.”

A proactive explorer on a proven copper belt with visible sulphides, local backing, and a drill turning before the snow has melted?

White Cliff’s Rae campaign might just become one of 2025’s more interesting copper plays.

As always, assay results will do the talking. But for now, the narrative is crisp, and the strategy—first-in, fully-funded, and focused—might just pay off.

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