Viking caps January with formal First Hit acquisition

Special Report: Viking Mines is rapidly advancing work at its First Hit gold project in WA after formally acquiring project owner Red Dirt Mining.

The acquisition came on the back of shareholder approval at a meeting held Friday, and paves the way for Red Dirt to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Viking Mines (ASX:VKA).

It’s another significant step in a busy period for VKA, which in January secured two tenements in the vicinity of First Hit and hired gold exploration expert Julian Woodcock as CEO.

Viking chairman Ray Whitten labelled the acquisition transformational for the company.

“I am extremely happy that the company has been able to acquire the high-grade First Hit gold mine as part of the Red Dirt project package,” he said.

“This represents an excellent opportunity to add development assets and ounces to Viking’s existing greenfield exploration portfolio of mineral projects.

“The company has wasted no time in appointing a very well credentialled CEO to drive VKA forward and we are looking forward to advancing the multi-staged drilling programs in the coming months.”

Gaining greater understanding

In parallel with the transaction for First Hit, Viking has been working closely with CSA global to improve its understanding of both the mineralisation and historic mining activity at First Hit.

The company has completed data compilation, lode evaluation and drill program planning to test extensions from known mineralised positions and along the regionally prospective First Hit structure.

The outcomes of this work include the digitisation of the extent of mine workings underground to improve drillhole planning; an ongoing tenement-wide 5,000-scale geological interpretation using historical 25m airborne geophysics and other remote sensing datasets; and a preliminary evaluation of the regolith geology and geochemistry.

Viking said in a release to the ASX that with the acquisition complete, its focus would now be on delivering and executing drill programs to grow in-ground ounces while advancing exploration on the recently acquired surrounding tenement.

Viking First Hit — The First Hit project’s location within the broader region. Pic: Supplied

First Hit is a high grade historic project where mineralisation is open in multiple directions.

The project was last mined in 2002 by Barra Resources and Barminco, and was shuttered due to the low gold price environment despite delivering at cash costs of just US$354 per ounce.

It has barely been touched since, despite historic assays reported by Barra in 2002 which include:

Below the historic mineral resource:

9m at 64.8 grams per tonne gold from 62.1m;
7m at 22.2g/t gold from 64.3m;
5m at 10g/t gold from 55.8m;
and 3m at 9.3g/t gold from 273m.

Laterally adjacent to the historic mineral resource:

3m at 77.6g/t gold from 224m;
1m at 66.7g/t gold from 164m;
and 1m at 15.4g/t gold from 255m.

Above the mined workings:

4m at 26.1g/t gold from 58m in an un-stoped area;
2m at 13.1g/t gold from 27m above the highest level mined;
2m at 5.1g/t gold from 18m near surface splay;
and 4m at 2.3g/t gold from 38m near surface splay.

The project sits adjacent to Ora Banda Mining’s (ASX:OBM) Riverina open pit mine and just 150km northwest of Kalgoorlie, with four operating mills in a 100km radius.

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.