Viking Mines (ASX:VKA) has increased its land position and purchased strategic tenements on the Mt Ida Fault zone, bringing the total granted land package in the ‘prospective’ lithium district to 291km-square.
Viking Mines Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Julian Woodcock says the tenements are strategically located on the ‘well-endowed’ Ida Fault, which is directly south of Delta Lithium’s Mt Ida Project.
Viking is actively pursuing prospective tenure around the substantial landholding already established on the Mt Ida Fault. As part of this strategy, the company has purchased a 95% interest to all minerals in tenement E30/505.
The tenement is located immediately to the west of Viking’s current tenure and complements the existing land package. Viking has pegged additional tenements to the east and west. E30/570 is going through the approvals process while E30/571 is subject to a ballot with 3 other parties, the date of which is yet to be announced by the Western Australian government.
The total land package including applications stands at more than 535km-square. The tenement is surrounded by tenements held by Ora Banda Mining (ASX:OBM) which has recently divested the Lithium rights into a JV with Wesfarmers Chemicals, Energy & Fertilisers for $26 million.
Meanwhile, Viking now aims to uncover ‘high-quality’ targets for follow-up exploration through its current auger drilling program conducted at its First Hit Lithium and Gold Project in Western Australia.
The $11.27 million market capitalisation company is aiming to complete the current 1,200-hole auger drilling program and collect samples by the end of November, as well as submit samples for multi-element analysis to the laboratory.
Viking expects to receive these sample results in the March quarter 2024.
These results are anticipated to play a ‘crucial’ role in shaping the direction of follow-up exploration activities.
Upon receiving the assay date, Viking will evaluate the results and uncover anomalous areas for follow-up field work. This will include field mapping, rock chip sampling, and infill auger/soil sampling.
Woodcock says drilling will assess a 26km strike length covering more than 55km-square of tenure by collecting auger samples, which acts as a first pass test of the project’s lithium and gold potential.
“The collection of new samples across the remainder of the tenure has the potential to both grow the size of the current anomaly and define new targets“
“Less than 14% of the area being tested by this program has seen previous sampling for lithium, yet multiple anomalies more than 50 parts per million (ppm) have been defined in this limited data set.
The collection of new samples across the remainder of the tenure has the potential to both grow the size of the current anomaly and define new targets.”
Viking Mines is a critical and battery minerals explorer focused on its Western Australian assets. The First Hit project lies west of Menzies in Western Australia’s Goldfields.
As of 30 September 2023, the company had $5.6 million cash at hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Viking Mines
