Dec 6 2019
VR Resources Ltd, the "Company", or “VR”, is pleased to provide an exploration update for its Ranoke copper-gold project in northern Ontario.
The window has closed for workable fall weather towards cost-effective drilling at Ranoke. The reconnaissance drill program started in November is now on hold until January when daylight hours are longer and weather is more stable. The drill rig and supplies remain on site so that start-up in January will be efficient.
The first of three planned holes is complete. The Company will provide a complete summary upon the completion of the program this winter, when all geochemical data are in hand. Short of that, it is clear that the IP anomaly targeted in Hole 1 is related to extensive, secondary pyrite in open space fillings and lining fragments in limestone directly above the Archean basement. This hydrothermal activity is also evident in the basement itself, in the form of vein stockworks of pyrite and specularite (iron oxide) within mottled, potassium-altered orthogneiss.
Ranoke is a large target. When drilling resumes in January, the drill will be moved from the IP anomaly located on the periphery of the gravity anomaly to Hole 2 located in the center of the gravity anomaly 600 metres to the northwest, and then to Hole 3 in the center of the magnetic anomaly more than 1.5 kms to the northwest.
Results of the reconnaissance soil gas geochemistry survey conducted in the summer were received during the drill program. The survey was deployed in June, before magnetic and gravity surveys were flown. Four test lines were completed across four different areas of the Ranoke magnetic complex based on existing, regional magnetic data. There were 128 stations in all, spaced 100 metres apart. Three different data streams were collected and analyzed: organic compounds, sulfur compounds and vapour phase multi-elements.
The objective of the survey was simply to determine if any of the main magnetic bodies in the Ranoke Complex show evidence for a buried, degassing sulfide body at depth. The results are clear: there is a large, multi-faceted anomaly over the northern magnetic pipe that is unique to the entire 12 km magnetic complex at Ranoke. The anomaly includes sulfur compounds, propane and ethane organic compounds and the elements copper, gold and molybdenum in vapour phase. The anomaly includes 9 sample sites spanning 1,100 m across the RTP magnetic center of the 2.5 km in diameter magnetic pipe. Drill Hole RK19-003, planned for January, will test the strongest part of the soil gas anomaly, in the center of the large magnetic pipe.
From VR’s CEO Dr. Michael H. Gunning “Although mother nature pushed back against our fall drill program at Ranoke, we now have the drill on site, program mobilization and set-up behind us, the first hole under our belt, an understanding of the IP anomaly and obvious iron oxide alteration in drill core. Overall, we are keen to move the drill into the heart of the matter at Ranoke in the New Year: namely, the center of the large gravity anomaly, and the center of the large magnetic anomaly to the north. The coincidence of the new and robust soil gas geochemical anomaly with the center of the magnetic pipe only increases our conviction that we are moving the drill in the right direction during this first-pass reconnaissance drill program. We will return to Ranoke in January with conviction, and we look forward to providing further updates as the program advances.”
The helicopter-assisted drill program will resume in January from where it left off, from the road-accessible camp located at the near-by Ontario Power Generation hydro-electric facility at Otter Rapids.