- Management has strong track record in discovery and M&A
- Working capital of C$3.6M as of March 31
- CEO Michael Gunning was CEO at Hathor Exploration, sold in 2012 to Rio Tinto for C$654M
What VR Resources does:
VR Resources Ltd (CVE:VRR) (OTCMKTS:VRRCF) is a junior explorer advancing assets in Nevada and Ontario - both well-known mining-friendly jurisdictions.
The group's focus is to uncover, using new techniques, large copper-gold mineral systems, and the firm is continuing on from what was over four years of exploration in Nevada by a Vancouver-based private exploration company.
Its Big Ten epithermal gold property in the Walker Lane belt of Nevada comprises seven properties along a district-scale 20 kilometer (km) trend and multiple claims. The properties are the Hat Peak, Kano, Amsel, Danbo, Little Joe, Clipper, and Fischer properties. There is easy access to power and rail and an international airport in Reno.
A focus at Big Ten has been the hill at Amsel - a large topographical feature at the asset with a surface footprint defined by this 2 km x 2 km gold-silver soil anomaly. The Amsel property now consists of 66 claims covering 1,363 acres.
Meanwhile, the company's Reveille silver project lies on the northern margin of the Walker Lane belt, 90km east of Tonopah, and comprises 66 mineral claims in one contiguous block covering 1,344 acres. VR has been working there since June 2020 with fieldwork wrapping up in the third week of December.
Targets have been attained from detailed sampling and surveying and lie on the western side of this district-scale property, prospective for both silver-copper CRD mineralization, and for gold related to late, Carlin-style fluids.
Elsewhere, its Bonita project in Nevada is a large porphyry copper-gold system discovered by VR with a 5 km by 7 km footprint and five to six specific targets. It covers 7,872 acres and has 381 claims. The firm believes the Bonita system to be similar to the nearby Yerington mine deposits, which have generated 162 million tonnes of 0.55% copper.
In Ontario, VR owns the previously unexplored Ranoke copper, gold project, which was staked by the firm in 2019 and is a large-scale iron oxide copper-gold target. Ranoke is a greenfield, blue-sky opportunity, the company says.
Elsewhere, the Hecla-Kilmer project, 35km away, is a direct extension of the ongoing exploration strategy at the Ranoke property towards a blue-sky discovery of a large footprint iron oxide - copper-gold hydrothermal breccia system.
Consisting of 360 contiguous claims covering 7,400 hectares, the Ranoke project lies 15 km west of a CNR railway spur and is 25 km north of road access to Otter Rapids, an Ontario hydro-electric facility serviced by Highway 634.
How is it doing:
Exploration has once again been the key theme for the company in 2021.
On June 29, VR Resources said that the second phase drilling is now underway at its Reveille silver-copper and gold project in Nevada and that it believes the potential source of the mineral system there has been identified at the now confirmed anomaly at Kawich.
Phase 2 drilling, comprising four holes, is expected to take two to three weeks, with geochemical results anticipated by the end of the summer. Two holes are aimed at testing the breccia pipe at G1 intersected in over 100 metres (m) of drill core in the final hole of the Phase I program, and two holes are planned to test the core of the new IP anomaly at Kawich, said VR. In addition, the expansion of a 3D ground-based geophysical survey is now complete and the final data received, with the "large and high amplitude" IP anomaly at Kawich now confirmed.
In early March, VR Resources had said the first phase of a planned maiden two-stage reverse circulation (RC) drill program was underway at Reveille - the aim being to complete more than 1,500 metres (m).
Then on March 17, the company said four of the five holes planned in the phase I program were completed in 10 days for a total of 4,347 feet (ft) with each hole between 1,000 and 1,200 ft long, and more than 800 geochemical samples from the first four holes submitted to the lab.
On May 19, the company reported that drill hole RVD21-001, completed to 109.7m, had confirmed a breccia pipe starting at surface at the gold target at Reveille named G1 and that the drill program would be extended in a bid to complete three additional RC drill holes to target the base of the G1 pipe and its controlling structure.
Also significantly this year, VR Resources revealed that lithium and rare earth element (REE) mineralization had been discovered at its Hecla-Kilmer copper-gold project in Ontario, following a four-hole reconnaissance drill program, for 1,971m, which was completed at the property late last year.
In one hole, a broad interval of lithium occurred in fluorite-carbonate hydrothermal breccia with 0.045 % lithium oxide recovered over 19.4m. In addition, broad intersections of critical minerals, niobium-thorium-REE were uncovered in two holes, and corresponding high-density profiles were confirmed in XRF scanning.
At Hecla-Kilmer, the company also said that it had received “convincing” final data for the ground-based gravity survey carried out in March this year, reporting that the intervals of copper, gold, and critical metal mineralization intersected last fall by VR lie on the eastern margin of a large and high amplitude gravity anomaly.
The company said it was now planning for Phase II, follow-up drilling in September to test the new anomaly for the heart of the “REE-bearing, IOCG hydrothermal breccia system” discovered in 2020.
Inflection points:
- More Reveille exploration results
- More from Hecla-Kilmer
- Precious metals moves
What the boss says:
In the May release which confirmed the discovery of the breccia pipe at the G1 gold target at Reveille, CEO Dr Michael Gunning said: "Overall, we believe that this G1 drill hole, as difficult as it was to complete, proves the potential for the superposition of a Carlin-style gold fluid system on the CRD silver-copper system at Reveille, with gold-bearing jasperoid breccia hosted on the same regional-scale structures and caldera margin faults as the silver and copper. VR endeavours to bring modern mineral deposit modeling and state-of-the-art exploration technologies to historic and proven districts like Reveille in order to 'turn up something new'."
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com