Below is our News Release from Friday announcing our Phase One drill program in and around the Tower Zone, approximately 1,000 m east of our Reed Lake Discovery Zone, near Snow Lake, Manitoba.
I have held back my blast introducing the release to you until John Roozendaal could confirm the start date of drilling. I can tell you now that the rig is on its way and John expects the drill to be turning Sunday afternoon, or Monday morning, at the latest.
I met with our full geological team, including three of our geophysical consultants, for three days in Winnipeg October 25th through 27th. This planning meeting covered many topics, including final targeting discussions. I’m pleased to let you know that an additional target has been added to the Tower Zone Phase One drill program. It lies between the Reed Lake Discovery Zone and the area of previous VMS Tower Zone drilling.
The meeting was designed to begin the development of a two year plan to move our entire Snow Lake property package to drill readiness. Our 2009 mapping and geochemistry data has been received and is being layered over our various property databases. We have generated a set of responsibilities within the group that will keep us focused on developing drill targets for the foreseeable future. The immediate tasks at hand are as follows:
· Prepare and execute the Tower Zone Phase One drill program, including borehole surveys for each hole.
· Make all preparations for Tower Zone Phase Two drilling, likely in early January, including analyzing additional data collected from summer 2009, and commissioning new DeepEm programs to analyze potential targets to the east of the T4 and T5 targets announced earlier.
· Compile all data now in house for the entire 40 Km long Copper project. This extensive land package includes, in its southern portions, land north of the Sylvia deposit and to the west and North of the Kof deposit; approximately 10 km of untested VTEM anomalies; the Copperman Deposit; and the Puella Bay project to the north of Copperman. The target for a first draft of this compilation for the Board is December 5, 2009. Drill targets will be prioritized.
· Sails Lake data, including summer 2009 work is also being compiled and analyzed. Drill targets will be prioritized for consideration for drilling this winter.
· Budget 2010 will be finalized in December after the work above is completed.
It has been a year demanding patience from shareholders and management alike. We decided early in the year to execute our 2009 summer field programs, particularly the geochemistry surveys for properties with dolomite (limestone) cover, before we began to drill. I am satisfied we are much better informed with the 2009 geochemistry and mapping data in hand. Our team has expanded with the addition of our Flin Flon Snow Lake experienced consultants and I can assure you the decision making processes are energized and focused with all the data we value on the table. I left Winnipeg very excited about the next two years for VMS and its shareholders.
We continue to believe that an agreement with our partner, HudBay Minerals, to develop the Reed Lake Discovery Zone can be made and we are working towards that goal.
Finally, I want to point out that HudBay’s growing Lalor deposit is again bringing international attention to this prolific VMS belt. I was pleased to receive a call from a senior mining analyst in Toronto two weeks ago who had his institutional investors asking, “are there any other Companies besides HudBay in this belt"? As you know, VMS built its land package before either Reed Lake or Lalor were discovered. We have massive opportunities ahead of us as we explore our own properties, and we will continue to review other opportunities that we see in 2010 and beyond.
Best regards,
Rick Mark