Snow Lake Project

VMS Ventures has 13 100%-owned properties in the highly prospective Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt in central Manitoba. These properties have been combined to form the Snow Lake Project with a total area of 51,409 hectares. All but 3,078 hectares are sub-Paleozoic in nature. That is, 95% of the properties are covered by a thin layer of dolomite and sandstone of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. Accordingly, traditional bedrock geological mapping and prospecting are useless and indirect methods of exploration based on geophysics and geochemistry are required. The 13 100%-owned properties are summarized in Table 1. Originally these properties were acquired by way of Mineral Exploration Licences however subsequent to ongoing exploration the MELs have been reduced to claims. The properties all target base metal massive sulphide type mineralization.

Table 1: All 100% owned exploration properties in the Snow Lake Project.

Each of these properties has been flown with current airborne geophysical technology (VTEM) providing electromagnetic and magnetic databases for the upper 200-250 m of the greenstone belt. Many have had deep-looking time domain electromagnetic (TDEM) ground surveys undertaken and this approach will provide an electromagnetic review of the belt at depths greater than those achieved by the VTEM surveys. Mobile Metal Ions soil geochemical surveys have been applied to most of the geophysically surveyed properties with the aim of prioritizing those conductive anomalies with elevated metal contents for diamond drilling. All anomalies that have been selected for drill testing are modeled in three dimensions to provide the optimum set-up for the drill program. Using this approach, VMS Ventures has established a 95% success rate in explaining the cause of the geophysical targets with drilling.

The project areas are characterized by extensive wet organic cover including peat and string bogs that overly a thin veneer of Ordovician dolomite that obscures the prospective volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt. In the vicinity of the airborne geophysical anomalies the volcanic rocks of the Flin Flon Belt invariably are altered and mineralized with pyrrhotite and pyrite and rare chalcopyrite and sphalerite. Generally, the Flin Flon Belt rocks that underpin the VMS properties comprise juvenile arc volcanic rocks including mafic and felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks, greywacke and derived gneiss. These sequences are intruded by a compositionally diverse suite of lithologies including gabbro, diorite, quartz diorite, leucocratic granodiorite to tonalite, granite and syenite to monzonite.

A number of base metal massive sulphide type deposits occur within the sub-Paleozoic volcanic rocks in the belt and adjacent to the VMS properties. Their characteristics summarized in Table 2. Their presence indicates the processes responsible for massive sulphide type base metal deposit formation have been active in the sub-Paleozoic portion of the greenstone belt.

Table 2: Summary of known sub-Paleozoic base metal massive sulphide type deposits and mineralized zone in the volcanic rocks of the Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt.

The majority of the drill-tested targets from the sub-Paleozoic properties have been characterized by graphitic argillite, disseminations and laminae of pyrrhotite and pyrite and sulphide facies iron formation with very minor base and precious metal contents. Significant mineralized zones have been discovered by VMS in the sub-Phanerozoic portion of the Flin Flon-Snow Lake belt and an example of this is the Cowan River target.

At Cowan River, airborne geophysical targets (VTEM) were tested by five drill holes totalling 1500 metres. Hole RE-11-001 intersected 6.59 metres of 2.25% copper and 0.61% zinc including 1.37 metres of 9.81% copper and 1.46% zinc in near solid and disseminated sulphide hosted by chloritized basalt. The intersection occurs approximately 75 metres vertically below surface. Pervasive chloritization of the footwall basalt and the style of copper-rich mineralization are similar to the Reed Mine deposit and are typical of alteration associated with volcanogenic massive sulphide-type deposits. The style of sulphide mineralization resembles the stringer zones or ‘feeder pipe’ material which occurs in the footwall or stratigraphically beneath massive sulphide deposits. This discovery is hosted within the Four Mile Island Assemblage that also hosts the past-producing Spruce Point and Dickstone deposits and VMS’ Reed Mine.

In June 2015, four diamond drill holes were drilled on the McClarty Property. A total of 1184 m were drilled to assess EM geophysical anomalies. As well, a 12 km time domain survey was conducted on the property. VTEM conductors were explained by disseminated to stringer pyrite and pyrrhotite in basalt, graphitic argillite, and intermediate porphyry and to a lesser extent interflow detrital sedimentary rocks, no significant intersections were obtained.

A work program is being considered for the Grass Valley claims following up favourable VTEM targets and geology.