VR Resources Ltd (TSX-V:VRR, OTCQB:VRRCF) provided investors with an update on its busy exploration program consisting of getting the drill back to Northway in Ontario and focusing on the upside potential of its porphyry copper assets in Nevada.
The Vancouver, British Columbia-based junior exploration company disclosed that three drill holes were completed for 1,035 meters (m) in three different areas of rare earth elements (REE) critical metal mineralization at its Hecla-Kilmer project, in northern Ontario.
Geochemical data is expected later this summer, said VR. The metallurgy and beneficiation study on the dedicated drill core from Hole 013 is also underway, and results are expected by late summer, it added.
In addition, VR indicated that it plans to return to the nearby Northway kimberlite discovery for the completion of an additional drill hole prior to demobilizing the Hecla-Kilmer drill program.
The successful close of the $1.9 million financing in May has provided VR with the funds to complete two high-tech geophysical surveys at its New Boston property, within the Walker Lane mineral belt, 150 kilometers (km) southeast of Reno, in Nevada.
The large New Boston property consists of 77 claims in one contiguous block covering 583 hectares. VR said it covers the entire extent of the known copper- molybdenum-silver-porphyry-skarn mineral system exposed on surface between Blue Ribbon and East Zone, and its inferred down-dip potential to the north.
Specific targets
According to VR, the goal is to identify “specific targets” for drill testing the high temperature, sulfide core of the polymetallic, stockwork and sheeted vein system exposed at surface over a 4 km strike length.
VR is currently working with fully processed data and final plan maps from both surveys and expects to report integrated results from 3D inversion models soon.
In a statement, VR Resources CEO Michael Gunning said: “The drilling at Hecla-Kilmer went as planned, and our current goal is to get the drill back to Northway for an additional hole into the kimberlite breccia complex before we demobilize the spring drill program.”
Gunning also reminded shareholders that VR has “not lost sight of the upside potential of our porphyry copper assets in Nevada.”
“Surface work and reconnaissance drilling by Conoco, Gulf and Bear Creek at New Boston in the 1960s and 70s clearly established the scale of the system, but a sector collapse in 1981 left that work unfinished with regard to identifying and drilling a central porphyry stock for the system of sheeted veins exposed at surface,” noted Gunning.
“The opportunity for VR is simply to finish the work that was started by Conoco, with the advantage of modern geophysical technologies. Our ultimate goal is twofold: identify and drill-test the sulfide core of the system, and to confirm with modern ICP geochemical techniques the polymetallic grade potential for copper and silver at New Boston, in addition to its known, world-class grades in molybdenum.”
VR noted that both Precision and DIAS had made room in their schedules for the company’s surveys this spring.
“We’ve worked with both companies on numerous previous surveys, and we look forward to revisiting what their respective technologies and modeling expertise can bring to the table to advance our understanding of New Boston towards drilling and discovering the center of the large porphyry system,” said Gunning.
VR Resources is focused on greenfield opportunities in copper, gold and critical metals.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.c
Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive