Viking Mines is officially aircore drilling the exciting First Hit gold project, with a phase one (AC) program around 25% complete.  

The AC kicked off on March 11, as part of a broader phase one exploration program which includes 6000m of AC and 2,508m of diamond drilling at Viking’s (ASX:VKA) flagship First Hit, in WA’s Eastern Goldfields.

The AC program incorporates around 350 planned holes, and at its current rate is on track to be completed in mid-April. Diamond drilling started in February.

Viking CEO Julian Woodcock said the progress at First Hit was encouraging.

“I am very pleased that we have successfully commenced with our regional aircore program on time and as planned,” he said.

“The programme objective is to complete a first pass evaluation of the poorly tested First Hit Project tenements and has been designed using a regional geological re-interpretation of the geophysics and regolith.

“We will be drill testing conceptual targets and gold anomalies from historic soil and auger sampling and looking to define drill targets for follow up bedrock testing.

“I am very much looking forward to getting the results from this programme to see if the potential for further shoots like First Hit can be realised.”

AC drilling at First Hit is being undertaken by Gyro Australia.

Aircore drilling at First Hit. Pic: Supplied.

New targets identified

Meanwhile, an updated structural interpretation of the tenements acquired by VKA as part of its transaction with Red Dirt Mining last year for First Hit has detected new areas of interest.

Re-processed 25m spaced airborne magnetics were used to identify and trace magnetic units on site and determine their structural offsets.

Key observations were made, including that mineralisation at First Hit appears to occur at the flexure point in northeast trending structures.

This is considered significant, given there are other similar structural positions in the landholding which have not been tested by previous exploration activity and have the potential to host gold mineralisation.

The current AC program will test these zones with a view to identifying anomalous gold or pathfinder elements for follow-up bedrock testing.

Diamond campaign continues

Diamond drilling is also underway at First Hit, with 635m of the 2508m program now complete.

Two holes – VDD001 and VDD002 – have been completed, and VDD004 is nearing target depth.

Activity at site is also progressing, with core markup, photography, and structural and geological logging underway.

First diamond core is scheduled to be shipped to Kalgoorlie by March 22 to be cut and sampled ahead of being sent to the lab for analysis.

Diamond drilling is being conducted by Topdrive Drillers Australia.

Diamond drilling at First Hit. Pic: Supplied.

Rapid fire progress

Viking has been quick to move since it announced plans to acquire First Hit in late November 2020.

Woodcock was appointed on January 5, and Viking quickly followed up by picking up additional regional tenements on January 8 and January 15.

The First Hit project was formally approved by shareholders on February 29, and exploration planning kicked off the same week.

Viking announced it had identified unmined, high-grade gold intercepts in the project’s historic database on February 8, and further, exceptionally high-grade gold mineralisation was reported in face sampling data released February 11.

An investor presentation dropped on February 15 stoked further excitement, with photos of a historic diamond hole drilled in the early 2000s showing visible gold specks at numerous points.

The excitement is understandable. In First Hit, VKA has a project 150km northwest of Kalgoorlie which is centred around the historic, high-grade first hit gold mine on the prospective Ida and Zuleika Shear zones of the Eastern Goldfields.

The site was last mined by Barra Resources in 2002, at a time when depressed gold prices of US$320 per ounce forced its closure. The project produced 30,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of around 7.7 grams per tonne, and no modern exploration activity has been carried out there until now.

Historic drilling of the mine delivered assays including:

  • 4.9m at 64.8g/t Au from 62.1m (FHU045)
  • 3m at 77.6g/t Au from 224.0m (BFH030)
  • 4m at 26.1g/t Au from 58.0m (BFH005)

The project as a whole incorporates around 28km2 of tenements, with six active mining and prospecting leases and one exploration licence under application.

Importantly, First Hit is well served by infrastructure and located 50km west of the sealed Goldfields highway and the township of Menzies.

The nearest operating gold processing plant is the Davyhurst Mill 50km to the south, which is owned and operated by Ora Banda Mining (ASX:OBM).

OBM also owns the nearest operating gold mine – the Riverina open pit 8km to the south of First Hit.

 

The First Hit project in regional context. Pic: Supplied.

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Viking Mines, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

 

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