Viking Mines (ASX:VKA) has resumed a 6,000m reverse circulation drilling program at the First Hit Gold Project in Western Australia targeting follow-up testing at the Bifrost target and its first drilling at the Central Duplex target, with assays expected next month.
Central Duplex, located 2.5km south of Bifrost, is expected to see initial drilling testing 2.8km of strike and 0.6km width of favourable greenstone geology.
According to Viking, the target is characterised by structures evident in the magnetic geophysics, an overlapping magnetic low and overlapping soil anomalies that are 6km gold more than 10 parts per billion and 3km long arsenic more than 10 parts per billion.
CEO Julian Woodcock said following the discovery of new gold bearing mineralisation at Bifrost, the company is enthusiastic to continue testing the 25km strike of the shear structure.
“The Central Duplex target has the right ingredients to be successful with a magnetic anomaly coinciding with elevated gold and arsenic results in auger and soil sampling, which mirror the conditions encountered at Bifrost,” Woodcock says.
“In addition to the ongoing studies being completed on the First Hit mineral resource, we are focused on making new discoveries using sound geological reasoning and methods coupled with an aggressive exploration strategy to rapidly test our prospective tenure in this exceptional gold environment.”
Follow-up drilling at Bifrost will begin once all final assays have been received, including assays from the recently completed infill auger program, which is expected this month according to a statement by the company to the ASX.
The auger program focused on defining surface gold and arsenic anomaly extents.
Upon completion, Viking intends to complete a mining evaluation study for the First Hit Mine.
Following Viking resuming drilling, the company has also appointed Julian Stephens as a non-executive director, amid Michael Cox stepping down from his role effective from 31 March 2025.
Stephens has over 25 years of industry experience and previously held the role as Managing Director at Sovereign Metals (ASX:SVM) where he acted as project lead on discovering one of the world’s largest rutile deposit at the Kasiya Project in Malawi.
In a statement Mr Stephens said he was ‘stoked’ to be joining Viking Mines at a time when the company is conducting aggressive drilling programs at First Hit.
“The results to date look extremely encouraging for this under-explored area and I look forward to assisting the company with advancing this and other projects in the company portfolio,” he says.
Viking Mines is a battery minerals and gold explorer with projects in Western Australia.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Viking Mines
