VR Resources Ltd. (TSX.V: VRR, FSE: 5VR; OTCQB: VRRCF), the
"Company", or “VR”, is pleased to provide an important update for
its Amsel gold-silver project in Nevada:
- The United States Forest Service
(USFS) has concluded its review with a Positive Decision for the
Company’s drill permit application for its Amsel project. In
follow-up to the Decision, the Company will arrange to post an
environmental bond, a standard condition for a final permit.
- The Company has received final data
from age date samples collected at Amsel in 2019. Results confirm
the same geologic age for Amsel as the 20 Moz Round Mtn. gold
deposit located 40 km to the northwest.
The Company will now proceed with planning for a
first-pass drill program at Amsel.
CEO Comment
From VR’s CEO Dr. Michael Gunning: “We have 4
years of exploration under our belt on our 20 km long Big Ten
mineral trend since first acquiring the Danbo property and its high
grade gold veins in 2016, but it is Amsel which has produced by far
the most compelling target for a large-scale epithermal gold-silver
system. As outlined in the next section, I cannot convey strongly
enough how much data are behind the main target shown on the map
and section in Figure 1 and Figure 2 of this news release.
In the second part of this news release, we
summarize the correlation of Amsel to Round Mtn., including new age
dates for Amsel. We have a high degree of confidence in how the
integrated target in Figure 1 relates to the mineralized tuffisite
shown in Photograph 1, and how that rock underscores the
correlation of Amsel to other epithermal gold-silver systems in the
Walker Lane belt, and most importantly to Round Mtn. located 40 km
to the northeast, and with more than 100 years and 20 Moz of
production to date.
With regard to the planned drilling, we know the
logistics of this region well, we have worked with this drill
company before, and we will build upon our relationships with key
geochemical and hyperspectral service companies in Reno in order to
optimize the quality of the data from this maiden program.
I would like to thank our shareholders for their
patience in getting to this point. We look forward to providing
further updates as we get closer to executing the first-ever drill
program into the heart of the large alteration system and
coincident IP and geochem anomaly at Amsel.”
Figure 1. Plan map of the Amsel
property showing Permitted drill hole locations in relation to the
targeted 700 x 900 m 3-D DCIP anomaly and
sericite-bearing alteration within the 2 x 3 km
K/Th radiometric anomaly representing the quartz-adularia
alteration cap to the epithermal system.
Figure 2. Cross-section view of
the 3D inversion block model derived from the DIAS32 3D DCIP survey
at Amsel showing the large and integrated target extending from
surface to depth through the 500 m vertical extent of the inversion
model. Note gold content in cursory historic RC holes collared on
the hill top in the high resistivity alteration cap.
Photograph
1. The IP anomaly shown in Figures 1
and 2 is targeted as the root of the tuffisite
breccia and quartz vein stockwork which crops out on the
hilltop where it has open space texture lined with quartz,
quartz-adularia-pyrite alteration, sericite
overprint, and gold and silver mineralization.
Target Definition for 2021 Drill Program
VR is focused on the strong correlation between
pyrite, adularia and silver-gold geochemistry in both rocks and
soil at Amsel. The objective of the upcoming drill program is to
test both the northern and southern parts of the large IP anomaly
shown in Figures 1 and 2 for a pyrite-bearing quartz vein stockwork
breccia body which forms the central root to the large alteration
cap exposed at surface on the hilltop.
VR plans to complete up to six priority drill
holes amongst the numerous permitted locations shown in Figure 1.
Both the northern and southern parts of the large IP anomaly will
be tested. There is pre-existing road access to all of the priority
drill collars.
The target is new. Gold was
confirmed in three short RC drill holes completed during cursory
exploration in the early 1980’s which was restricted to the hilltop
at Amsel where topography is subdued and tree-cover is sparse. The
new IP anomaly on the southwestern flank of the hill was never
explored or drilled.
The 2 x 3 km potassium airborne radiometric
anomaly which covers the entire hilltop at Amsel (Figure 1)
correlates with rhyolite tuff and tuffisite breccia altered to an
adularia-quartz-pyrite assemblage with a sericite overprint. The
correlation has been established via detailed mapping and
grid-based rock sampling, soil sampling, spectral mineral mapping
and petrography completed during the past four years.
The core of the epithermal system is in the
southwest quadrant of the potassium airborne anomaly shown in
Figure 1, based on geochemistry, mineral chemistry and IP
geophysics completed by VR:
- The high crystallinity sericite
mineral alteration shown in Figure 1 correlates
with soil anomalies for gold, silver, arsenic, molybdenum and
tungsten. The sericite results are from grid-based spectral mapping
at 135 stations over a 1.8 x 2.2 km area and the multi-element soil
survey utilized an even larger grid of 165 samples in a 100 m
equant station array.
- The 700 x 900 m IP anomaly in
Figures 1 & 2 is from a
DIAS32 3D DCIP survey completed in 2019, which included 19 line-km
covering a 3.2 x 1.2 km grid area utilizing a 100 m station spacing
for 150 receiver stations generating more than 95,000 dipole data
points for the 3D inversion model. VR is targeting the IP anomaly
for pyrite because VR has established a correlation between pyrite
and gold in mineralized quartz veins along the entire 20 km length
of the Big Ten mineral trend.
Geochronology and the Round Mtn.
analogue for Amsel.VR collected two samples from Amsel for
age-dating during field work in the summer of 2019:
- Sample 9461: is crystal-lithic tuff
with pervasive quartz-adularia-sericite alteration overprint,
and;
- Sample 9340: an unaltered lithology
of quartz-biotite-feldspar porphyry dyke. The dyke crosscuts the
tuff unit sampled for 9461.
Sample locations are shown in Figure
3. Age determinations from the University of Oregon using
total fusion argon-argon systematics on orthoclase and adularia
mineral separates are 25.57 and 25.10 Ma, respectively. The data
support an evolving magmatic-hydrothermal system at Amsel where-by
late-stage dykes intrude and crosscut earlier pyroclastic tuff
units, marking the cessation of mineralization.
The proximity of Amsel to the western margin of
the Big Ten Caldera is evident by the mega-breccia unit shown in
the inset map in Figure 3; the unit includes mega-blocks of
Paleozoic quartzite which forms the basement to the caldera
succession. The age date of 25.73 Ma shown in
Figure 3 for the Big Ten caldera is from Henry and John (GSA,
2013), and was obtained from the caldera-margin mega-breccia unit
immediately northeast of Amsel. It is closely followed by the
25.57 Ma date obtained by VR for the highly
altered and mineralized nearby Danbo Tuff pyroclastic unit on the
Amsel property itself.
Figure 3 also provides a snapshot of ages for
other Tertiary volcanic calderas in central Nevada, taken from two
papers published by the GSA (Geological Society of America) in
2013, one by Henry and John, and the other by Best and colleagues.
As shown in the schematic below, the Manhattan and Round Mtn.
calderas span the same geologic age as Amsel:
An infographic accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/edb6d3a4-ca91-4c07-aa05-ee623d7ad9bb
The Round Mountain gold deposit surpassed 20
million ounces of production in 2020 (Kinross Mining Corporation).
Artisanal mining began in 1906. Large-scale mining by modern pit
and heap leach methods commenced in 1977 and continues to this
day.
The target at Amsel is a quartz vein stockwork
system comparable to Round Mountain. The basis for the correlation
and potential analogue is multi-faceted:
- Age. Occurrence in adjacent
Tertiary volcanic calderas between 25-27 million years old;
- Setting. Location of the epithermal
quartz vein stockwork system at or near the margin of the caldera,
in proximity to contact with basement;
- System. Gold and silver
mineralization in a low-sulfidation, epithermal quartz vein
system;
- Trap. Mineralization hosted in
unwelded tuff below a cap unit of welded tuff;
- Adularia. Large-scale potassium
alteration footprint of quartz-adularia, with a specific
correlation of gold-silver mineralization to increasing adularia in
the core of the system;
- Pyrite. Correlation of gold-silver
mineralization to pyrite.
About the Big Ten Project
The Big Ten project is located in Nye County in
west-central Nevada. It is in the southern part of the Monitor
Range, approximately 50 kilometres northeast of Tonopah. Cost
effective exploration is afforded by road access to the property on
Nevada State Highway 82, with actively used historic ranch and mine
roads throughout and within the various properties along the
trend.
There are currently seven properties along the
20 km length of the Big Ten mineral trend. They total 117 claims
covering 2,417 acres. Each property is a single, contiguous claim
block. The properties are owned 100% by VR, registered to the
Company’s wholly-owned, Nevada-registered US subsidiary. There are
no underlying annual lease payments on the property, nor are there
any joint venture interests, carried interests or back-in rights on
the various properties. There is a 3% net smelter returns royalty
on certain claims in the Danbo property, and a 2% net smelter
returns royalty on the Amsel property, which currently consists of
66 claims covering 1,363 acres.
The land package is the result of reconnaissance
surface exploration by VR throughout 2018 and 2019, in follow-up to
a high resolution airborne magnetic and radiometric survey, and an
airborne hyperspectral survey used to map alteration minerals.
Integrated results form the exploration define a structural
corridor and mineral trend 20 kilometres long which transects the
entire Big Ten volcanic caldera.
The Big Ten Tertiary volcanic caldera is located
along the eastern margin of the Walker Lane mineral belt, host to
numerous Cenozoic-aged gold and silver deposits in western Nevada.
Big Ten is located immediately to the southeast of the Round
Mountain deposit which is hosted in a rhyolite volcanic center
(caldera) that is the same age as Big Ten, and in 2020 surpassed 20
Moz of produced gold (Kinross Gold Corporation). Adularia and
pyrite alteration are key to gold and silver mineralization in the
low-sulfidation epithermal system at Big Ten and provide additional
correlation to the Round Mountain deposit.
The cursory nature of exploration at Amsel in
the early 1980’s, and the lack of any modern exploration since
provides VR with the opportunity to be the first group to use new
exploration technologies on the large-scale alteration system that
were not available in the 1980’s, and similarly to apply the
insights from current mineral deposit models developed for
epithermal gold and silver deposits in the Walker Lane belt during
the past 40 years, including Round Mountain.
The Company’s website at www.vrr.ca provides a
more complete overview of the Big Ten epithermal gold project,
including locations and descriptions of the seven individual
properties, select property-scale plan maps with
gold-silver assays from surface grab samples, and field
photographs of epithermal textures in sulfide-bearing quartz veins.
Included is a bulleted summary of the various airborne surveys and
surface exploration programs completed by VR from 2016 to 2019.
Technical Information
Summary technical and geological information on
the Company’s various properties is available at the Company’s
website at www.vrr.ca.
VR submits all surface grab samples and/or drill
core samples collected from Nevada-based exploration projects for
geochemical analysis to the ALS Global (“ALS”) laboratory in Reno,
Nevada. Sample preparation is completed in Reno. Analytical work is
completed at the ALS laboratories located in
Vancouver, BC., including ICP-MS analyses for
base metals and trace elements, and gold determination by atomic
absorption assay. Analytical results are subject to
industry-standard and NI 43-101 compliant QAQC sample procedures at
the laboratory, as described by ALS.
Technical information for this news release has
been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory
requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101, and reviewed by
Justin Daley, P.Geo., Exploration Manager and Chief Geologist at VR
and a non-independent Qualified Person who oversees and/or
participates in all aspects of the Company’s mineral exploration
projects. The content of this news release has been reviewed on
behalf of the Company by the CEO, Dr. Michael Gunning, P.Geo., a
non-independent Qualified Person.
About VR Resources
VR is an established junior exploration company
focused on greenfields opportunities in copper and precious metals
(TSX.V: VRR; Frankfurt: 5VR; OTCQB: VRRCF). VR is the continuance
of 4 years of active exploration in Nevada by a Vancouver-based
private company. The diverse experience and proven track record of
its Board in early-stage exploration, discovery and M&A is the
foundation of VR. The Company focuses on underexplored,
large-footprint mineral systems in the western United States and
Canada, and is well financed for its exploration strategies and
corporate obligations. VR owns its properties outright, and
evaluates new opportunities on an ongoing basis, whether by staking
or acquisition.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
“Michael H.
Gunning”_____________________________Dr. Michael H.
Gunning, PhD, PGeoPresident & CEO
For general information please use the following: Website:
www.vrr.ca
Email: info@vrr.ca
Phone:
604-262-1104
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by
words such as: believe, expect, plans, anticipates, intends,
estimate, and similar expressions or are those which, by their
nature, refer to future events. Forward looking statements in this
release include but are not limited to: “the Company will proceed
with plans for a first-pass drill program at Amsel this fall”, and
“VR evaluates new opportunities on an ongoing basis, whether by
staking or acquisition.”
This news release contains statements and/or
information with respect to mineral properties and/or deposits
which are adjacent to and/or potentially similar to the Company’s
mineral properties, but which
the Company has no interest or rights to
explore. Readers are cautioned that mineral deposits on adjacent or
similar properties are not necessarily indicative of mineral
deposits on the Company’s properties.
Although the Company believes that the use of
such statements is reasonable, there can be no assurance that such
statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future
events could differ materially from those anticipated in such
statements. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking
statements by the Company are not guarantees of future performance,
and that actual results may differ materially from those in
forward-looking statements. Trading in the securities of the
Company should be considered highly speculative. All of the
Company’s public disclosure filings are available at www.sedar.com;
readers are urged to review these materials.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its
Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in Policies
of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the
adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Figure
1. https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/82f7ac76-c91e-4648-ad4e-c7398ccd050a
Figure
2. https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a68593ff-1fa4-4116-b1d4-62672ae0913b
Photograph
1. https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5491ab4b-0052-40ba-b64f-63ac0b7861fd
Figure
3. https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6c489cda-a5dd-42be-a717-0c55e9544de8
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