Among the step-out highlights, the company intersected 0.5m at 23.3g/t gold, within a wider 5.6m at 3.52g/t from 37.8m, along the Dixie Limb Zone.

"Step-out drill spacing is typically a few metres to tens of metres in the Red Lake district," president Chris Taylor said.

"Our step-outs at 850m at 1.6km along the Dixie Limb Zone have all intersected gold mineralisation, including high-grade gold."

The company believes the zone could extend to a 10km strike length based on a high resolution geophysical survey.

Taylor said the drilling programme in the main area had also identified gold over significant widths in near-surface holes, that overlaid deeper high-grade intercepts in the vicinity of most historical drilling.

The company had C$1.06 million (US$0.8 million) in working capital at the end of March and raised C$1.72 million (US$1.32 million) in May to help fund the continuing drilling programme.

Great Bear is earning a 100%, royalty-free interest in the Dixie property and enlarged it through staking earlier this month to a total of 9,140ha.

Its shares, which traded between C20-30c for much of last year, rose 3c to 52, valuing it just over $12 million.