Viking Mines readies for drilling at First Hit gold project

Around 65 holes will be drilled as part of a new drilling program at the ‘First Hit’ project, designed to follow up results from previous programs completed in the first half of 2021.

Viking Mines Ltd (ASX:VKA) is poised to begin a 6,500 metre reverse circulation (RC) drilling program across five priority gold targets at the First Hit project tenements ,west of Menzies in WA’s Goldfields region.

The explorer is hoping to obtain extra data to advance these priority targets (First Hit North, Emerald North, Jana’s Reward, Twin Peaks, and First Hit South) and identify new gold bearing mineralised shoots close to surface, which could be rapidly advanced.

Speaking to the upcoming drilling program, VKA managing director Julian Woodcock said the previous diamond and air core drilling campaigns identified several zones around the First Hit mining operations, which had not been previously explored.

First results anticipated for late-November

“This campaign will broaden our understanding of a potential new gold shoot around hole VDD016, conduct step out drilling north and south of the First Hit workings and follow up the encouraging AC results at Twin Peaks and Jana’s Reward, which both run parallel to the First Hit structure,” he said.

“It will also be the first opportunity for the company to undertake field drilling at the Emerald prospect, which has been identified as an area of interest from a recent field visit of the historic mine workings.

“First results are expected to be received in late-November 2021 and will be released to the market as batch results are processed.”

Viking Mines — Map showing drill targets for follow-up testing at the First Hit Project. Pic: Supplied.

The program leverages data from VKA’s inaugural drilling campaign completed in August, which identified multiple targets for follow-up including the high-grade quartz vein encountered in hole VDD016.

This vein – which represents the company’s most significant target — demonstrates that the First Hit structure is still active outside the defined limits of the mine workings.

There is an opportunity to expand this intersection and define a new shoot, as well as identify further additional shoots within the RC drilling program testing north of First Hit.

What’s next?

The current planned timeline for the field program includes:

Mobilise exploration team to site by the end of September;
Begin site preparation and pad clearing activities at the start of October;
Drilling scheduled to start week of October 4;
Dependant upon productivity, drilling will be completed in the second of November; and
Discussion with assay laboratories is ongoing with assaying targeted for completion by the end of Q2 FY22.

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.