b'COVERWHATS IN A NAME?As Michael Gunning will happily explain, VR doesnt stand for virtual reality. He says, I come from a family of skiers, and when I was very young, the ultimate dream ski was the famous Vlkl, Renntiger R. The companys RaceTiger ski was considered the ultimate ski to own because it was one of the first made from a composite, not only wood, and was designed for performance. Vlkl was where high-tech innovation blended with traditional craftsmanship and expertise, and I wanted my company to be able to do the same and emulate the same values. So, VR is an homage to that spirit.first project in Nevada. When I founded VR, I saw inefficiencies in the industry where I thought new techniques could apply to mature districts, such as Nevada and Northern Ontario. An old mentor once told me, You dont go into an old district with an old idea and make a new discovery. You have to put something new on the table. We now have tools and research capabilities that didnt exist decades ago, and at VR we know how to use them. We can now see things that prospectors and geologists never couldbefore.He adds, We took the modern iron oxide, copper, gold (IOCG) model and decided to take a new look at some of Kapuskasings historic geochemical data and government magnetic data in a way that previous companies couldntbecause the IOCG model didnt exist. This was before the worlds largest polymetallic copper-gold minethe Olympic Dam Mine in Australiawas even discovered. We applied that model at Kapuskasing to look for critical metals like copper and REE in a new way. Finding gold and copper at Ranoke led us to REE at Hecla-Kilmer, and that led us to a kimberlite breccia pipe with diamondsall in the same general area. 8 ONTARIO PROSPECTOR WINTER 2023'