Special Report: Viking Mines expanded its landholding at the First Hit gold project in WA by nearly 30%, purchasing the prospecting licence immediately south of the historic mine.

The First Hit project area is now 28% larger at 6.4km2 thanks to the acquisition, which comes via a deal with Australia Menzies Emerald Pty Ltd.

The tenement purchase secures Viking Mines (ASX:VKA) the potential continuity of gold mineralisation from First Hit at depth, with WA State Government mineral exploration reports (WAMEX) showing almost no drill testing has taken place on the licence.

Transported cover over the tenement is believed to have rendered historical geochemical sampling ineffective at the project – explaining a lack of prior exploration – but a program of work application has now been submitted by Viking to allow for drilling to take place as soon as possible.

The acquisition is Viking’s second in the prospective Ida Belt region in as many weeks, with the company picking up a tenement 11km to the south of First Hit on January 8 – just days after the appointment of new CEO Julian Woodcock.

In all, the company will expand its landholding in the Eastern Goldfields region to 28.5km2, after the Red Dirt Mining acquisition covering the First Hit asset is approved at an EGM on January 29.

“Acquiring this tenement is a key part of Viking’s strategy to both secure the potential for the depth extensions of the First Hit mineralisation in conjunction with the fertile structural corridor on which it lies,” Woodcock said.

“The surprising and exciting part was identifying that this structural corridor hasn’t been drill tested at all on the lease.

“The absence of any drilling over 1.8km of strike leaves a lot of room to find more shoots like First Hit, which only have a footprint of a couple of hundred metres at best.

“We are now able to incorporate this tenement into our up and coming aircore drilling programme scheduled to take place in Q1 2021 to test the prospective extensions.”

Viking said Total Magnetic Intensity geophysics datasets show that the prospective rock units and structures identified on the First Hit tenure continued directly onto its new tenement.

These structures and rocks do not appear to have ever been tested.

Viking first Hit South
Viking’s landholding in the Eastern Goldfields has grown again with the addition of the tenement immediately south of First Hit. Pic: Supplied.

All except emeralds

Under the terms of its deal with Australia Menzies Emerald Pty Ltd, Viking has picked up 100% of the tenement in exchange for $20,000 cash and a 1% net smelter royalty.

The vendor will also retain all rights to any emeralds uncovered on the tenement.

With the deal already done, Viking is already taking steps towards a first pass aircore drilling program to take place and have submitted applications for government approvals.

Aircore drilling on the new tenement will be an extension of the program currently being planned across First Hit and is expected to take place in the current quarter.

A close spaced gravity survey planned for First Hit Project tenements in late late January will be extended across the new tenement to complement the existing datasets and improve the geological interpretation.

Viking is also securing freely available datasets and incorporating them into its internal database – a key component of its reinterpretation of the bedrock geology across First Hit which will be used to guide drill targeting.

The reinterpretation is expected to be complete by the end of January.

First Hit potential

At First Hit, Viking is sitting on a high grade historic gold 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 a low gold price environment which rendered cash costs of just US$345 per ounce uneconomic.

Having only been mined to 220m, the project has barely been touched since, despite mineralisation remaining open in all directions and significant 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.

Viking First Hit south
Viking’s location within the Goldfields region. 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.