Metal Hawk secures promising Viking gold tenement

It is game on for Metal Hawk (ASX:MHK) after it was granted the Viking project near Norseman where historical drilling returned intriguing high grade gold hits.

It gets even better.

The tenement is subject to a farm-in from Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN), meaning that the exploration bill over the next couple of years could be covered by the discoverer of the world-class Julimar resource.

Chalice is already planning to start reverse circulation drilling in the coming months, meaning that Metal Hawk will not have long to wait to see if historical hits such as 6m at 64 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 50m and 4m at 15.4g/t gold from 40m can be repeated.

“We look forward to the commencement of exploration drilling on the Viking Project which presents as a very exciting high-grade gold discovery opportunity,” Metal Hawk managing director Will Belbin said.

“We are delighted to have a partnership with the Chalice team and believe this project has potential to add significant value for Metal Hawk shareholders.”

metal hawk viking project location — Viking Project location. Pic: Supplied

Farm-in details

Chalice has the right to earn a 51 per cent interest in the Viking gold project by spending $1m over two years.

It has already committed to spending a minimum of $200,000 and plans to carry out about 3,000m of RC drilling at the high-grade Beaker 2 prospect in the June quarter as its initial work.

On achieving a 51 per cent stake, Chalice will have the right to earn a further 19 per cent by funding an additional $1.75m over 30 months.

Upon completion of the earn-in period, both companies will form a joint venture and fund exploration for the project on a pro-rata basis.

Viking gold project

The Viking project covers 210sqkm about 30km east of Norseman within the southern portion of the mineral-rich Albany-Fraser Province.

Gold was first discovered by AngloGold Ashanti (ASX:AGG) through surface and auger sampling in 2011 and has been explored intermittently since then till 2017.

Four prospects, Beaker 1 through 4, have been identified to date with shallow drilling at each prospect returning significant gold intercepts.

The two most advanced prospects – Beaker 2 and Beaker 4 – are located about 5km apart.

metal hawk beaker 2 — Beaker 2 prospect cross-section. Pic: Supplied

Mineralisation at Beaker 2 is characterised by a zone of flat lying high grade supergene gold with limited previous drilling having tested the oxide mineralisation while the primary bedrock source of gold remains unexplored.

At Beaker 4, mineralisation trends north-south and is associated with moderately east-dipping shear zones. Gold is hosted within multiple zones of quartz veining and visible gold has been observed in diamond drill core.

Other projects

Viking is not the only project of Metal Hawk’s that is subject to a farm-in.

Western Areas (ASX:WSA) has the right to earn a 75 per cent stake in the Kanowna East, Emu Lake and Fraser South projects by spending $7m over five years.

The company is free carried to a decision to mine and retains the gold rights at Kanowna East and Emu Lake.

Kanowna East, Metal Hawk’s flagship project, is located about 25km northeast of Kalgoorlie and 8km from Northern Star’s (ASX:NST) +5Moz Kanowna Belle gold mine.

First pass drilling by the company since its listing in November 2020 has already some encouraging results such as 4m at 7.1g/t gold from 55m and 6m at 3.37g/t gold from 24m.

This article was developed in collaboration with Metal Hawk, 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.