Special Report: Viking Mines has secured more ground near its highly prospective First Hit gold project, adding a new tenement 11km south-southeast of the high-grade historic mine.

The tenement, which will add 21km2 of prospective greenstone belt to Viking Mines’ (ASX:VKA) growing WA portfolio, will complement the land package associated with the pending acquisition of Red Dirt Mining incorporating the high grade First Hit historic gold mine and also sits adjacent to Ora Banda Mining’s (ASX:OBM) Riverina open pit mine and underground resource in the Eastern Goldfields.

Publicly available data on the tenement shows extremely limited exploration drilling history, with no drilling recorded on site since 2013. Prior to that work – a 20-hole aircore program carried out by Salazar Gold – the site was last drilled in the 1990s.

Viking said magnetic data suggested significant regional structures and prospective interpreted mafic units cut through the tenement area.

The acquisition comes just days after the appointment of gold exploration veteran Julian Woodcock as chief executive officer.

Woodcock’s experience spans multiple decades in senior gold exploration roles at Gold Road Resources, Gold Fields and Evolution Mining. He said today’s announcement was significant for the company and its plans in the prospective postcode.

“I am very excited that in my first week with Viking we have managed to secure a prospective new tenement which by all accounts hasn’t seen a drill bit for seven years, and not to mention, has never had any bedrock testing with RC or diamond drilling,” he said.

“Located only 4km away from the Ora Banda Mining Riverina deposit, and with rocks displaying similar magnetic signatures and structural setting, is very exciting.

“The proximity to First Hit and the excellent infrastructure links to the area will make exploration of this tenement package straightforward and effective.

“I can see that this acquisition has the potential to contribute significantly to our growing WA exploration portfolio.”

Viking is now in the process of securing the freely available datasets with a view to carrying out a thorough geological assessment while the application process is underway.

Reinterpretation of the site’s bedrock geology will be completed as part of a more comprehensive regional geological assessment in the coming months, which will then be used to generate drill targets for follow-up once the tenement is granted.

Viking hit
The location of the tenement currently under application, with WAMEX exploration drilling collar locations and TMI magnetics background. Credit: supplied

Positive newsflow ongoing

Today’s announcement, just days following the appointment of Woodcock as CEO, represents another positive step in the Viking story since the company announced it was picking up First Hit in November last year.

That project, added through the acquisition of Red Dirt Mining and due to be completed after the EGM on 29thJanuary, features a historic high-grade gold mine which has barely been touched since 2002.

The project was shuttered in 2002, when Barra Resources and Barminco found it uneconomic despite delivering gold at a cash cost of just $US345 per ounce.

Importantly, the mineralisation at First Hit remains open in all direction from the historic resource. Drilling carried out by Barra during its ownership returned the following assays.

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 was only historically mined to around 220m.

With a growing package of tenements in a postcode just 150km out of Kalgoorlie and 50km from the Davyhurst mill, Viking is well positioned and looks set to hit the ground running in 2021.

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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