Diamond & Specialty Minerals Summary for May 11, 2023
2023-05-11 20:47 ET - Market Summary
by Will Purcell
Michael Gunning's VR Resources Ltd. (VRR) gained one cent to 20 cents on 256,000 shares. The company continues to buck the market mood as it looks to emerge as a new diamond explorer in Northern Ontario. The company has just closed a private placement, raising $1.88-million by selling nearly eight million flow-through shares at 16 cents and 4.3 million regular shares at 14 cents apiece. This was to have been a $2-million placement when the company began the sale in early April, and within two weeks it had sold all but the 1.27 million hard-dollar shares that were just sold in the final tranche.
Plans are now under way, says Mr. Gunning, president and chief executive officer, "to commence drilling next month" at the company's rare earth elements critical metals project at Hecla-Kilmer and at the nearby Northway kimberlite discovery. That sounds like a delay, since in early April the company was cheering plans to drill both properties this month, although in his latest missive, Mr. Gunning compounds the confusion by noting that the company's camp was reopened last week and is "ready for the startup of drilling planned for next week on the kimberlite breccia pipe at Northway," which is to be followed by the tests at Hecla-Kilmer. The drilling, he concludes, is expected to take approximately one month to complete.
Northway, roughly halfway between Kapuskasing and Moosonee in the James Bay Lowlands district, is a confirmed kimberlite -- if a glancing blow delivered by a drill bit on the fringe of a big geophysical anomaly counts as a hit. That test produced about 40 metres of weathered diatreme breccia kimberlite, and while there was no mention of diamond counts, the company did enthuse about the "array of kimberlitic textures present." Now, Mr. Gunning and his crew are champing at the bit to drill a hole into the centre of the target, hopefully down the throat of a large pipe. The company now has the cash it needs, so stay tuned. |
