The Empire District is a 4 x 15km area that has remained mostly unexplored for the past century due to sediments from glacial Lake Agassiz, which was once the largest lake in North America. With minimal outcrop, early 20th-century prospectors passed through without significant interest, and only a few drillholes or modern geophysical surveys were conducted during initial explorations in the 1950s and 60s, as compared with adjacent mining districts (Hammond Reef – Au, Lake des Ille – PGE, Shebandowan – Ni-Cu).
In 2002, the OGS resampled lake sediments in the Wawang Lake area (OFR6076) confirming and enhancing previous results, identifying rare earth element (REE) anomalies adjacent to new lead and zinc anomalies. Despite extremely limited bedrock exposure, outcropping alkalic and basic intrusions have been sampled showing anomalous copper and gold along the TransCanada Highway. These results, alongside high iron, strong REE and thorium/uranium anomalies in nearby lake sediments indicate potential for Olympic Dam – style mineralization.
The Lumby Lake greenstone belt, part of the Wabigoon subprovince, and metasediments of the Marmion terrane are host to several large magnetic-high bodies inferred as Archean intrusions. Claims optioned by VR Resources in September 2024 cover one such mafic intrusion cut by the TransCanada highway, with 14 new PGE and nickel-copper-chromium anomalies identified by the OGS along trend.
VRR is scoping for gridded soil and till geochemistry on the Westwood target to be followed up by state of the art 3D DCIP geophysics to identify a disseminated sulfide target for drilling later in 2024 or early 2025. Planning is underway for regional magnetic data acquisition to further refine and explore anomalies observed in the coarse 1950s GSC magnetic data along the northeast trend.